James & I teamed up again today to do a barrel kiln firing with the Aba students. We stacked their dry clay works with layers of sawdust and wood chips, and then topped off the barrel with hot coals, which burned slowly toward the bottom in a matter of about ten hours. It was definitely the quickest, easiest method I’ve ever used to turn clay into ceramics. We sent out some of the Aba kids to a local woodworker to ask for his sawdust scraps. The kids came back with three giant bags.
The kiln burned all night, which was surprising considering we only used sawdust and wood shavings. It was still too hot to unload this morning, so we used sticks & shovels and rags to start grabbing work to see the results.
