A few years back, I worked through some of Andy’s paid courses. I really respect that he’s trying to preserve both the pottery culture and the techniques that have been in continuous use for thousands of years.
He’s run a newsletter for years, and he’ll occasionally talk about hosting workshops, or traveling to meet up with various academics.
He’s a very specific kind of nerd, and I love that he has found his niche.
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In terms of my own pottery, turns out I’m more of a slip caster. Much more in line with Kent’s channel[1] than Andy’s.
His method of firing is substantially different enough from a standard electric or gas kiln that it's more in tune with pit firing, which is what ceramicists call it when you just build a hole in the ground and make a fire in it and toss the pots in.
This is, of course, slightly abstruse if you aren't into the nitty gritty of it, but suffice to say, if you said his stack of bricks on the ground was a kiln, many people would be confused.
The raw clay wouldn't be vitrified, so it would be porous and would seep or leak. A glaze is a glass, more or less, and to get the silica to melt you need a flux. There are different fluxes for different temperature firings, but suddenly things are getting a little more precise. Without substantially levelling up the kiln tech and design you'll be at best low-fired and probably using lead as a flux. E.g. terracotta and earthernware.
Early peoples would have used wax or fats to seal pots like these, to make them functional. People do that with modern pit-fired pots too, or use other sealants.
I designed and built my own high-fire kiln, but it uses industrially made light-weight insulating and refractory brick, and gas burners, and I use Orton cones to know when I've hit the right amount of heat-work, and a pyrometer to take temperature readings. But some brave souls make their own bricks, and look at the colour inside the kiln to know when they're at temperature.
A few years back, I worked through some of Andy’s paid courses. I really respect that he’s trying to preserve both the pottery culture and the techniques that have been in continuous use for thousands of years.
He’s run a newsletter for years, and he’ll occasionally talk about hosting workshops, or traveling to meet up with various academics.
He’s a very specific kind of nerd, and I love that he has found his niche.
—-
In terms of my own pottery, turns out I’m more of a slip caster. Much more in line with Kent’s channel[1] than Andy’s.
[1]: https://youtu.be/BEVAidKCbUg?feature=shared
Wait, so his way of making pottery without a kiln is to... make a kiln?
I watched the video without sound, did I get that wrong?
His method of firing is substantially different enough from a standard electric or gas kiln that it's more in tune with pit firing, which is what ceramicists call it when you just build a hole in the ground and make a fire in it and toss the pots in.
This is, of course, slightly abstruse if you aren't into the nitty gritty of it, but suffice to say, if you said his stack of bricks on the ground was a kiln, many people would be confused.
I think he meant a kiln that you specifically have to buy.
[dead]
What happens if you put anything wet in that bowl? Doesn’t it need to be glazed? And how could you glaze it at home?
The raw clay wouldn't be vitrified, so it would be porous and would seep or leak. A glaze is a glass, more or less, and to get the silica to melt you need a flux. There are different fluxes for different temperature firings, but suddenly things are getting a little more precise. Without substantially levelling up the kiln tech and design you'll be at best low-fired and probably using lead as a flux. E.g. terracotta and earthernware.
Early peoples would have used wax or fats to seal pots like these, to make them functional. People do that with modern pit-fired pots too, or use other sealants.
I designed and built my own high-fire kiln, but it uses industrially made light-weight insulating and refractory brick, and gas burners, and I use Orton cones to know when I've hit the right amount of heat-work, and a pyrometer to take temperature readings. But some brave souls make their own bricks, and look at the colour inside the kiln to know when they're at temperature.
Great DIY video