fizzy cider

I'm enjoying a cup of one of my favorite late fall treats: fizzy cider. Here's how you make it:
Buy a gallon of cider sometime in October and drink about a quarter or third of it. Then put it in the back of your fridge and kinda forget about it. Then in mid to late November when the plastic jug looks inflated and about to blow the cap pour yourself a glass and notice the way it fizzes. It's that easy.

The new kiln, a slideshow

It went a little something like......

Photos from the unbuilding

The Brattleboro Clayworks kiln served a hearty 25 years with only one partial rebuild until now. In one day we removed and sorted the whole thing into about five piles of work weary brick. Clayworks members came out of the woodwork and pitched in to create the best damn brick brigade I've ever been a part of. Not even walls could stop us, nope we just go right through those.


Here's the very bottom of the chimney complete with cracked lintel which crumbled in my hands as it came out.

Here's the main reason for the rebuild. As you can see the wall was feeling a little tired.

A new beginning

The Brattleboro Clayworks kiln was duly deconstructed Sunday with lots of help from members Billie, Annie, Lucinda, Jen, Maria, and Sue. The kiln was built in 1983 and although I suspect parts were rebuilt every now and again this will be the first total overhaul. Pictures are forthcoming. Tonight I took apart the very bottom two courses of brick and cleaned off the cinder blocks exposing the clean slate for the new oven. I'll be there after work each night for probably the next two weeks putting it back together, luckily we've got a big crew coming on Saturday to pitch in. Woohoo!

Orv Wright burns number 138

Last week was a busy one with prepping for the Clayworks' kiln rebuild (photos and more coming on that) and recovering from a cold while working. It was made even busier with a couple of night-time stoking shifts thrown in the mix as well. But busying oneself with the stoking of a friend's kiln is the best kind of busy I know. Orv Wright is a generous mentor and a bad-ass potter. I've been lucky enough to be a part of his firing crew for a couple years and it's always a pleasure. As an added bonus my pots from the previous post were in the kiln and ready for the heat.
On Thursday I started the wood stoking around eight pm and listened to the BBC for five or so hours while a distinct nip developed in the air. I had to shut the radio off around 11 when I realized I was grinding my teeth to McCain soundbytes.
Here's Orv taking over the stoking at 1am or around 1200 degrees for the night haul.
Here's Sorry about the poor quality of the photos, but their from my celli; although I kinda like the pink and purple in this snap looking into the main firebox. It looks a little ghostly, no?

There's the whole of the beast from the front. This was Orv's one hundred and thirty-eighth firing. Damn, that's a lotta mud.
Pictures of the unloaded pots will be forthcoming.

Some newish work

Way back in January, I made some pots up at Malcom Wright's during a house-sitting gig. I had almost totally forgotten about them until this summer when Orv mentioned that he had bisqued them. So here are the more interesting pre-firing ones. I've been playing around with stencils and the lightbulb and giraffe are some new ones.



My goal with these bowls is for them to stack in sets of four. We'll see how they turn out.

My Favorite Pot

This is my favorite pot. It's a two gallon salt-glazed jar made in Hartford, CT. I've liked salt-glazed wares for some time. As far as ceramic history goes, it wasn't that long ago (circa 1400 CE) that an unknown German potter from the Rhineland introduced salt into kiln probably on accident and low and behold it makes glaze on the pots in the kiln. This technique became hugely popular in production pottery since it eliminated the step of glazes the pots before loading and firing. It showed up in the American colonies in the early 1700s and became the dominant utilitarian houseware.
This pot came out of a house in North Chester, MA that was in my grandmother's family since it was built around 1805. It was among several jars and jugs in the house, but just stood out with it's tall stature and high belly.
The mark on the front says, "G. Benton & L. Stewart, Hartford." The other week during open studio tour I stopped by Mark Shapiro's spot with this pot in tow. Knowing Mark as a potter with a serious interest in New England historical pots I thought he might help me find a little bit about it. He consulted Lura Woodkins Watkins book and discovered that Benton and Stewart were retired sea captains who bought a pottery in Hartford and ran it for couple of years, around 1815 or so, and then sold it to the potter who was actually making the pots.
I love the rich brown color to it, so many early American salt-glazed pots are grey but perhaps the clay had more iron to it or perhaps it was in a reducing pocket of the kiln. There are a couple subtle flashing marks where it stood next pots in the fire. The handles are round and laid flat against the shoulder and neck with some cobalt and the attachment.
I've tried in the past to make pots like it, but haven't yet nailed the form. So far it remains as a challenge to shoot for, but for now I'm happy just to look at it.