For some of you folks that have been around for awhile, you might remember Anne and Bill Bracker's salt kiln, built on the land near their old studio in North Lawrence — at the famous Teepee Junction.
Here is a mini documentary (or Bracku-mentary!) that talks a little more about this lovely salt kiln Anne and Bill built on that land just down the street from Bracker's. You will find Anne speaking about this kiln specifically at around the 5:00 minute mark.
Unfortunately, this kiln has only been fired 8 or 9 times, and has since been untouched for the most part. This year, Cindy and Dave went ahead and decided to move the salt kiln with the hopes to potentially rebuild it with the community elsewhere — stay tuned for details on that in the coming year!
Anne and Bill Bracker's salt kiln near their old studio space.
The thing about "moving" a kiln like this is that you can't actually "move" it — you need to take it apart, brick by brick, and build it again the way that it was before. So! With a team of students from KU's kiln building class, the Lawrence Arts Center ceramics resident, and a few Bracker's employees, Dave and Marshall Maude led the controlled demolition of Anne and Bill's salt kiln.
Taking note of all the measurements and bricks used for each portion of the kiln, we started a "train" of people to take bricks off the kiln and to the van, where they would sit organized by brick type. There was also a large blanket of maybe 10-12" kaowool (or ceramic fiber) with a steel frame and little roof draped over the top.
We considered using the arch form from the new Noborigama at KU (for those of you following the updates on that) BUT the arch form was too small for this kiln — we kept it in there as a fail safe and said, "Here goes nothing!"
It was quite the team effort, and many of the bricks were larger and heavier than normal hard brick. But man, was that kiln built well! All the pounding on the arch, and the bricks fit so precisely that they hardly wanted to come out at all.
Teamwork makes the dream work
Au Revoir salt kiln — until next time!
Zeynep Uner is the current kiln and wheel repair apprentice at Bracker’s, working directly with David Sturm (the head tech) on repairs large and small. She has been repairing kilns for approximately 3 years now, and has been absorbing everything she possibly can from David’s 30+ years in the field.
Zeynep enjoys atmospheric firing, taking film photos, and throwing on her old Brent kick wheel.
