Art Chowder November | December, Issue 24 | Page 26

“R
apid cycle — it means more
frequent stoking. I think part of the
theory is to use small wood because it’s
going to burn hotter and snappier, but
at this stage of the game I don’t think it
matters as much.”
“We’ll probably make 2000 today, don’t
you think? 300 degrees from now?”
“I don’t want to make any sort of
prediction …!”
“If we go below 1200 degrees we’ve got
a problem.”
“1725 [degrees], 1726 — probably just
getting ready to drop.”
“So we’ll get ready to stoke.”
“You know, ancient ceramicists, they
would go strictly by color; they’d look at
the color, they had no pyrometers. When
do you think they started using cones?”
“The British invented the Orton
pyrometric cone, didn’t they? Maybe
the Chinese used some sort of cone
too. They could look at the color of
something and tell you the temperature.”
“Kind of a lost art… ”
The ancient art of wood-firing ceramic
kilns doesn’t seem like it’s lost today!
TRACKSIDE STUDIO
Chris Kelsey and Mark Moore:
www.tracksidestudio.net
The crew of the May 2019
firing of the Kurōrukamegama:
Chris Kelsey: chriskelseyceramics.com
Julie Kelsey, Mark Moore,
Gina Freuen: ginafreuen.com
Brian Joyce , Dennis Smith
Mike Buck, Dirk Elliot, Christina Elliot
26
ART CHOWDER MAGAZINE