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GRAHAM SHEEHAN - WOOD
FIRING - Sept. 10 &
11, 2005
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On Saturday, September
10th we
gathered at Bonnie Keats' place for a two day workshop exploring a number of
firing techniques, including wood fire, pit fire, saggar fire, and raku. The
wood fire was the major focus, and was led by both Bonnie and Graham
Sheehan. It was a pleasure to share Graham's enthusiasm for wood firing and
his experience with this particular kiln. He designed it, and Bonnie built
it. Many emails passed between them in the fall of 2004.
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Click on pictures to
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Graham Sheehan has been
building kilns for over twenty years, and is a man of varied interests. He has a background in civil
engineering, he teaches mathematics at Mallaspina College in Nanaimo, and he plays guitar and sings in a band of eclectic
tastes. He also promotes the Empty Bowls Project,
and is the director of the Gabriola Food Bank. Graham
works in stoneware, and his pots have a feeling of warmth to them. He lives
on Gabriola Island, across from Nanaimo.
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Graham first came to know
this style of kiln while grwoing up in Australia. It has a 16 square foot chamber with an
arched roof and an attached boury box. The boury box is
27" long, with hobs on either end that cradle the wood above the coal
bed. It is stoked from both the bottom and the top of the box. There are
some 1600 brick in this particular kiln, mostly soft, and some hard in
critical areas to add strength.
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Click on pictures to
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It is housed in an open shed perched
on the side of the mountain, looking out over rolling yellow hills. Fir and
pine trees jut from the landscape that rises up from the valley floor. While we fired
sandhill cranes called out from the trees above and a large
flock flew in jagged lines across the sky.
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Our weekend started with a
quick glaze session. Bonnie provided a variety of
glazes, which included red irons, celadons, and shinos she mixed up from the
Paul Davis workshop. Pots were carried outside to the kiln, in anticipation
of Graham's arrival. As is the case when potters gather, many forms were
thrown.
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Having loaded the kiln
Graham and Yoko filled in the door and sealed it with a slurry. On Sunday
morning Graham began to stoke the kiln from the bottom. A variety of wood was used, but
birch seemed to be the mainstay. The temperature rose quickly and stoking
at the bottom was continued until 1000 degrees centigrade.
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At 1000 degrees stoking
moved to the top of the boury box. A coal bed of about four inches was maintained as much as
possible. Every three to four minutes the hatch was opened and more sticks
were added. They hung above the
coals and fell through fairly quickly as the temperature rose.
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This rhythm was constant
throughout the day. The initial 1000 degrees took about five hours, and the
last 350 degrees took another five hours. It was an eleven hour firing, that
reached cone ten. At that point languid yellow-white flames flowed through
the kiln and escaped from the the chimney thirteen feet above.
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Click on pictures to
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In the last moments of the
firing Graham un-tied a bundle of western red cedar, which he brought from
Gabriola. He uses it for his own firings, which creates warm red hues
in his pots. The cedar crackled, the last flames burned, and the kiln was
dampered down. Only a small vent was left open as the coals crumbled to ash.
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More on Graham
Sheehan...
A
Brief Bio
Graham's
Videos - he has made five instructional videos
A
Video Clip - High Speed required
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Updated - March 22, 2009
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