The past weekend we've decided to test out a temporary wood kiln. The kiln was constructed our of regular clay building bricks and mud. Apart from a commercially purchased glaze we've also tried out making some ash glaze. It took about two hours for the oven to heat up and give the pots a nice red glow. The fire was then fed for about 7 hours before we let the fire cool.
The end result was very disappointing, none of the glazes worked. I believe that although the fire felt extremely hot for us it needed and extra bit of heat, perhaps a fan the bottom would have given enough heat. The other problem might also be that the firing of about 8 hours was simply too short. A different glaze might also have worked better.
The glazing might not have worked, but it was a lot of fun and very interesting. The oven would still work very good for bisque firing as well as firing larger pieces that won't fit into the electric oven.
Some photographs of our oven:
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| The design of our mud and bricks kiln. It took about 1 hour to build this simple oven. |
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| Feeding the kiln. |
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| The fire took a while to heat up. When it was hot it burned thick hard away logs in minutes. |
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