Diving Deep and Blasting Off: From Rocket Kilns to Rockin' Pots!
with Lisa Orr and Henry Crissman
Course Schedule:
4th Thursdays // 6-8pm EST
Course Description:
Have you built a rocket kiln? Or are you planning to build one? Are you firing a Rocket or wanting to explore modifications of the design? Wanting to push your work to the next level and develop firing theory and methods suited for your specific kiln/interests, firing context, and goals? The rocket kiln design may be a great answer to the question of how to create the most efficient and affordable kiln that can be fired with wood, but to what end and how?!
This course will serve as an online deep-dive series of lectures and round table discussions covering everything from rocket kiln design and construction to approaches in the use of soda and salt, slips and glazes and the myriad of techniques, possibilities and considerations that might guide or inform rocket and other alternative wood fire processes, to enable the achievement of your desired results.
This theoretical and practical cohort is best suited (but not limited to) students who might want to build some variation of a rocket kiln at some point during the year.
Join Lisa and Henry, two quirky, experienced, enthusiastic, supportive and clay loving fire bugs for 12 two-hour sessions, once a month over the course of one year, as well as two one-hour individual meetings tailored for each participant and their unique project. Let's work together to see how far our rocket kilns can take us!
1. Intro to course and to each other. Student plans, interests, intentions. What is a rocket kiln? The whos, whats, wheres, whens, whys, and hows. Questions. Start Henry kiln presentation if time.
2. Henry Presentation: History and evolution of wood fired kilns, kiln materials, kiln anatomy, kiln designs, kiln loading techniques, firing fuels and approaches, and relationships between materials, kilns, firings and outcomes.
3. Lisa Presentation: Lisa’s wishes for her own work in the rocket kiln, and also how to build a rocket kiln without an upcycled electric kiln.
4. Our questions followed by theirs. What are we all wondering? Clearing up questions. Touching back on materials. Temperature ranges, clay bodies, flashing slips, soda and salt, use of local materials.
5. Thoughts on making, and making toward wood firing specifically. Discussion of favorite pots and how they were achieved. How we might achieve similar results in a rocket kiln.
6. Kiln Building Demo Day. Planning for firing. Pots, wadding, loading, wood, people, communication, food, etc - the important things!
7. Firing Demo Day
8. Discussing / Disecting Results. Problem Solving. Building Experiments. Planning for the next firing.
9. Henry Presentation: Art / Kiln / Ceramics School Story
10. Community Studio Day - All Making together over Zoom - light making demos along with discussion of students work, kiln questions, plans, etc
11. Mini wood fire kiln builder symposium (3 guest artists - 20 min presentations each - followed by 1 hour roundtable discussion)
12. Student presentations - 5 minute show and tells - a final roundtable goodbye! 🥲
Registration opens October 19th at 10am Central Time
About Lisa
Lisa Orr has been a studio potter for 40+ years. After completing an MFA at the NYSCC Alfred in 1992, she received a Fulbright, an MAAA/NEA and other grants to research ceramics and create films. Her work has been placed in numerous public and private collections. Currently refining an accessible smokeless wood kiln, she also teaches, lectures, and shows nationally and internationally.
Instagram @lisaorrpottery
About Henry
Henry James Haver Crissman earned a BFA in Craft from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, MI in 2012, and a MFA in Ceramics at Alfred University in Alfred, NY in 2015. He and Virginia Torrence co-founded and co-direct Ceramics School LLC, a ceramic-centric community art school and artist residency in Hamtramck, MI. He lives and makes art in Hamtramck, MI, and is currently an adjunct professor in the Studio Arts and Crafts Department at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, MI.
https://www.henrycrissman.com/
Instagram @henrycrissman
