As part of the culmination of the year's project's — KU's kiln building class last fall hosted a Fire Extravaganza in November to celebrate the Lawrence Arts Center & KU's 16th collaborative Anagama firing and the experimental performance kilns that the KU students have been working on.
Over the course of the semester, the students built a rocket kiln (per Lisa Orr's popular plans), a large sculpture reveal kiln, a kiln built out of potatoes, and a primitive chimney kiln built out of clay.
As the sun set and the anagama and train kilns were both firing off, each of these performance kilns reached mega hot temperatures and wowed a large assortment of people that all came down to the Chamney Barn complex to support the community!
Sculpture reveal kiln
The sculpture reveal group started a slow firing early in the day, so that it was primed and ready for the showy reveal right around 7:30. Tree fronds and beautiful sparks high in the air were complimented by the sounds of a soft drum circle around Natalia Melendez's performance kiln nearby, a primitive clay kiln built in forty-five minutes — full with small sculptures and figurines meant for the fire.
Rocket kiln (left) and Potato kiln (right)
The rocket kiln is a kiln design recently popularized by Lisa Orr for its efficiency, clean burn, and ease of sourcing parts. Some say you can get this kiln to Cone 10 in a few hours time under the right circumstances!
The potato kiln is a simple updraft kiln designed by Duncan Shearer, who has made all kinds of performance kilns with unique building materials — such as ice blocks, phone books, and more.
What a beautiful and fun night this was!
Anagama kiln getting close to top temperature (left) and Train kiln (right)
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.
