Fast Shipping ~ Secure Checkout
Pottery & Ceramics » Media & DVD's

"Brick by Brick" by Bob McIlhattan How We Built a Wood Fired Kiln In Less Than a Week ~ DVD

Brick by Brick

How We Built a Wood Fired Kiln
In Less Than a Week ~ DVD

Artist:

Bob McIlhattan

Learn how Bob McIlhattan and Ron Linn built the first Bourry box train kiln in the Pacific Northwest, just outside Portland Oregon. With the help of master kiln builder Donovan Palmquist and a small army of workshop participants, the 115 cubic foot wood-burning pottery kiln was completed and fired in just under a week.

This DVD chronicles that workshop. Detailed kiln plans and firing instructions are not included. Instead, this is an account of the trials and errors involved in turning a mountain of raw materials into a finished woodfired pottery kiln, putting a visual face onto what might otherwise seem a daunting mess of instructions, brick by brick.

If you see only one film about
building Bourry box kilns this year,
see Brick by Brick. Order yours today!

Made In:

USA

Price:

$ 20.00

About the Artist:

Bob McIlhattan has a gift with dirt. Clay more specifically, and no two ways about it, he is a true artist when it comes to mixing, sculpting, forming, and firing this material that the rest of us usually take for granted, and think of only as 'dirt'.

A pioneer in the art of woodfired pottery, Bob was a key part of building the first Bourry box train kiln in the Pacific Northwest. The results of his work yield unique pieces deep of character, with a rich texture and comforting weight.

With this kind of woodfiring, no two pieces are ever exactly alike. The searing hot wood ash circulates in patterns within the kiln when it is fired, depositing layers of glazed ash in certain areas, and even sculpting and etching away in other places. Firing the kiln is a cooperative effort, feeding the fire at repeated intervals, monitoring and graphing the temperature as it curves upward with just the right arc at just the right time. All day and all night someone keeps watch over the kiln as the temperature rises.

Interestingly, when the kiln is firing there is very little apparent smoke that comes out of the chimney, as it's mostly hot gasses. The Bourry box kiln was developed originally to be an incredibly efficient method of firing. And so as the wood burns, the hot gasses are recirculated within the kiln, again and again reburning the hot wood ash until there is very little smoke.

The pieces of pottery we have showing here are simply fantastic. We chose each individually for their uniqueness and beauty. Pottery is one of those gems of artistic mediums that combines both aesthetics and useability. A mug, a cup, a bowl, a bottle that is a unique piece of art in and of itself is not only an uncommon experience in this day and age, it is uplifting.

Learn more of Bob's Woodfired Pottery...