Wood Firing #2 at Strathnairn

 After what I thought were good results from the first Strathnairn wood firing, I organised another firing to take place in October. This time I made vessels made from only the Spring Creek clay and used the same glazes. I did however, alter the way the glazes were sprayed on the pot by overlapping\over spraying the glaze in various places and thicknesses. I tried several different combinations.

The vessels I made this time generally had a narrow base which proved to be a little problematic. I made 20 pots for this group firing but only 12 survived, many fell over due to the narrow base and my incorrect wadding technique. I applied one large wad to stabilise my pots in the pack rather than several smaller ones - next time I will stick with several smaller wads on each pot (e.g. 3 or 5 or 7) to keep them upright during the high temperatures.

Front of kiln packed and ready to fired

Picture of one of my pots tipping over and touching the prop (Brick)

Using Local Materials?

In December 2006 in the midst of drought, my dad had a great number of his dams excavated when they were dry. Obviously to remove silt etc. and allow more water storage when it eventually rained again. I was curious about the clays that could be 'found' this way. In one dam in particular we found 'white stuff', as my dad called it, I was instantly intrigued.



Drought and empty dam December 2006



2006 Clay deposit on the sides and bottom of the dam

I am not a geologist or potter with vast experience so I found myself on a steep learning curve!!

Could I make things from this clay? and what else could I use from the farm (same location) to create art and would this art reflect its location? - developing a sense or impression of place. I wanted to learn more about ceramics so I applied to do post-graduate study at the ANU in 2007.

So I was off, looking for what I could use. Initially I looked in the pile of dirt/silt/clay that was excavated from the dam. Fortunately for me I had a conversation with my dad during the excavation and he was able to move the bulk of the 'white stuff' off the bottom of the dam, to a large pile on one side (2.5 m x 5 m approx). Here is where I started looking, I found: Clay that looked primary in nature (marbled with iron), a curious red rock (sedimentary and quite sandy) and a hard whitish rock (quartzite). The photos of these first discoveries are below:

2007 Large clay pile

Clay material

Red rock

Quartzite