Jack Troy's Anagama

Joy Bridy Current Gallery & Pots For Sale

Another lovely summer firing has passed at Jack Troy's Komuri Anagama kiln. This year, the cicadas joined in, their song teasing my ears into hearing the sounds of ocean waves, constant but always fluctuating. The Komuri firings always have a dream-like feeling..... perhaps it's the squirrels that play hours of tag leaping from treetop to treetop, never touching the ground, or the calls of the Carolina Wrens and Wood Thrush, the benefits of firing during the overlap of strawberry, cherry and blueberry season, or lovely meals on the screened-in-porch..... perhaps a little of all of this, plus the delectable pieces that inevitably come out of the firings and lovely folks that I get to chat up while stoking. It all adds up. Some of my favorite pots and favorite memories were made here, between the spit of securing wadding and the stoking of prime amish sawmill cutoffs. Thanks never says enough to the mentors that we owe our inspirations to.....

This most recent firing, June-July 2008, included some of my newest works, including the new surface techniques I've been playing with. Using wax and a paintbrush, I've been writing loosely on the surfaces, then rubbing away the surrounding clay gently with a sponge. This time-consuming method has brought a sense of personal touch to my work with enough mystery and happenstance to keep me asking What If. Jack stacks with tall stilts and Big Heavy shelves, more than any one of us can lift on our own. Two people can load for the first day, Jack in the front, and people rotating in the back. Of course, I love to be in the back, working the jigsaw puzzle, remembering how the rear near the flue is a sweet spot for a dark, gooey brown with golden flecks and runs. The challenge is always how to fit in the incredible number of small functional pieces, and how to fill the tall thin spaces. "Tall and thin always get in" is the motto of the day. But once the lighting ceremony is complete, and we wander off to our sleeping spots around town, the next few days are an exciting and smooth flow of choosing the right wood for the right flame, mastering the amish hook and loop game on one of the shed posts, and enjoying the casual mountain summer breeze. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, the celebratory drive up to Greenwood Furnace after side stoking. Greenwood Furnace is a spring-fed lake, estimated to be 52 degrees.......Yahoo!

The anagama generally take two full days to load, and is fired for four days. Works in the front of the kiln tend to be bisqued, but there is plenty of greenware further back, so the preheat is slow for the first day or so. By the third day, we hope to reach maximum temperature in the front and hold it for 24 to 30 hours. This firing was different from others in that we started side-stoking as soon as the front was past red heat. After the soak, sidestoking commences in earnest, which is usually "flame throwers" in the side door ports.....very thin and long pieces of pine that are inserted just a few inches. We listen for the strong pulling sound of the fire, and push in the wood when the sound dissipates. Once cones are down in the door, and we feel confident that any glazes and ash have melted, we move back, until the entire kiln has reached the goal temperatures, ideally. The kiln cools for at least 5 days, sometimes more, and we meet up again to unload the pots, one by one, and lay them out on the grassy drive in front of the kiln. (They always look better in the natural light.) After lunch, masks and safety goggles are donned, shelves and posts are scraped, and a layer of kiln wash is added to the shelves before we all go our own ways for another year. It always seems so far away, but before we realize it, we're back together, updating each other on our past twelve months, comparing glaze recipes, and commenting on changes that we see in our work, ready to load, stoke, and talk along another firing cycle.