THE CRAFT OF FIRE

Okay, so on August 30, 2014 we tried another temperature test. This time we used a digital pyrometer and stuck the probe into the oven, with the cable wrapped up in ceramic fibre so it wouldn't melt. We also used the cones again, except this time we covered them with a flower pot (like a saggar) so we could surround the pot with lots of hot coals and not worry about the cones getting broken. The thinking was that maybe maybe we would reach cone 014 if the fire/heat was a bit more protected from the cool air moving in, etc. And we of course took advantage and fired up some more pieces. Outdoors it was a sunny 26°C and we started up at 2:55pm. Getting to 100° took a little while, but after that things moved quickly. 100° at 3:25 pm 200° at 3:36 pm 400° at 4:00 pm In just over an hour we reached 500° (4:10pm), but around that point the temperature readings started fluctuating wildly, jumping up and down in a flash by 60° or more, and then settling for...

One question we are all very curious about is how hot can this mud oven get? When working in the Craft of Fire, you start to develop a point of view on the history of the human being as the history of the production and management of ever-hotter fires. If you can get your fire hotter, you can produce new kinds of materials, and that brings with it certain (big) advantages:   "When those who had forged iron came along and attacked the ones who had bronze weapons, the bronze would break. They came with iron and broke the bronze of the other guys. Run! It was ridiculous. T errible.  They had to run because their bronze would break. And so things moved from the Bronze age to the Iron age. The people of bronze had a superior civilization, with great productions, but they hadn't produced iron. And the other primitive types around where they lived had n't melted bro nze, they went straight and melted iron. And like that they defeated the ones with the superior civili...

So we finished the mud oven last fall, then it was a freeeeezing cold winter for waaaaay too long, and then finally, finally, last weekend we fired it up for a first cooking-fire test drive. The oven revealed its earthly origins by sprouting moss, clover, and even a few tiny mushrooms. The firing and cooking was great fun - and pizza-making lends itself easily to group activity.  And the oven worked very well. In our enthusiasm, though, we probably started cooking too early, because the crusts weren't getting properly baked, meaning the oven floor wasn't hot enough. As time went on, the crusts got more crisp, so we probably should have waited about 2 hours before starting, instead of about 1 hour 20 minutes. But hey, no one really complained and we all had a great time.  (Although in the photo below it looks like DZ is burning his mouth and not having a great time.) We're now ready for more cookery, and al...

We've met a few more times to make our molds and copies, and in almost every case, to redo them. In some cases the silicone material wasn't mixed properly so it never hardened correctly, and therefore never cast correctly: In another case we're guessing that the silicone material was old and wasn't mixed properly so it never hardened correctly: In yet another case the (different) silicone material wasn't mixed properly so it never hardened correctly: And in one case the mold material worked out well but the mold's design wasn't good, so the little Venus emerged with a flat top : or the object used had too many openings in it and couldn't be cast well: But eventually (imagine!) we learn and get all the basics straight and produce a mold that works. Or should, once we meet up again and try it out...

Winter, with regular temperatures of -22°C, is a perfect time to find Craft activities that can be done indoors. For example, mold-making! While not dealing with fire or heat directly, learning to make molds out of silicone rubber and plaster will prepare us for later when we start casting material melted in our kilns and forges... So this past weekend a bunch of us got together to start. We looked for suitable objects to copy, using some of the old examples a few of us had created in the past, or else finding new ones. For this first session we used prefab mold kits to keep it simple.  Although we started working with a modern material (silicone rubber), the theme of originals, copies and molds is an ancient one: “You, Aruru, who created humanity, create now a copy of Gilgamesh, so that when these two meet they will fight between themselves and leave our city in peace.” The goddess Aruru, hearing this request, concentrated within hers...

What are the chances? We had an amazing ice storm here around Xmas time and there was incredible damage to all the trees in the city, including all around my neighbourhood. In fact, there were large (I mean, large) branches down on every block around our house, and many people had their power totally knocked out, some for over a week.       this foto by Ron Bulovs, Wikimedia Commons                                                      So of course as I walked the dog I gathered up particularly good pieces of wood (i.e. no larger than about 2-inches in diameter) from around the 'hood and brought them home and piled them up in the front yard, for eventual storage in the garage in the back – and eventual burning in the mud oven in the spring. Free firewood! I had quite a nice pile of wood in the front, and then one m...