DIY Kiln
So the other week, my fiend Richard and I set about making a kiln – we had never attempted anything like this but were confident we would at least get a couple of successful pieces fired. The below images show the pieces we were trying to fire.
Using ordinary house bricks, breeze blocks, and Richard specially-made kiln bricks we assembled a fairly small kiln, powered by a coal and wood fire beneath, and further fuelled using an air supply.
The results varied depending on where they were palced in the kiln. For instance, the bowl had fired very low, and judging by the colour, it couldn’t have been any higher than 650 degrees. While the bowl fired very low, the large tile, while looked fired, was still crumbling.
Here’s the tile after a clean and a sand down. The way the sandpaper crumbled the tile made me realise how much below temperature the kiln must have been.
The experiment was a partial success, and I felt as though with more time to prepare, more kiln bricks and longer to fire the pieces we would have much better results.
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