In mid August 2003, Anita Lowe, Joyce Westergaard, Donna Ward, and Lucille Kapple from the Sacramento Potters Group, and many other artists gathered our pots and drove up to Oroville, California, for the firing of a brand new climbing kiln at the invitation of Richard English Harvey.  The kiln was built on the side of a very steep hill surrounded by a lovely orchard of apples, Asian pears, figs and berries.  As we carried our wares from the parking area we passed plots of huge yellow and white summer squash surrounded by large red boulders forming  irregular-shaped beds and on the other side of the road green beans and other vegetables in another garden.  In the early morning air all of this was such a nice introduction to begin our adventure of firing a wood kiln.

After arriving, we immediately began glazing our pots.  Some decided to let the fire do the glazing on some of their pots.  Linnell Barnhart had brought some glazes and flashing slip and offered that to all who were in the studio.  There was another glazing area that Richard had set up under a storage area and porch out of the sun.  This was also where people congregated to make and apply wadding.  Wadding had to be applied on every pot and sculpture where it rested on the kiln shelf.  Usually three dabs would do to keep it from sticking.  Wadding consists of kiln wash, aluminum hydrate and koalin and a little water to make it the consistency of dough.  If the foot of the pot was thin and/or the pot was heavy it had a tendency to slice right through the wadding and if wadding gets on the side of the piece and glaze runs over it, it might not come off.  It was a little tricky.

Richard has a roomy, well-lighted studio.  His wedging table is banquet size.  There are several wheels - kick and electric, several work tables and a drying area.  His kiln is outside on a covered porch. The wood kiln is opposite all of this and climbs up the side of the hill.  It is 25 feet long.  His home is off to the side a few steps away.

This hillside resembled a bee hive or ant hill especially the first and second day.  People were scurrying all over bringing in their pots, then glazing, helping with the wadding, arranging ware tables and then placing the pots on them.  There were bricks to be loaded into a wheelbarrow and stacked behind the kiln.  There was an enormous amount of cut wood to be thrown into the bed of a pickup truck and moved to the kiln area and at first stacked, later thrown piece by piece into the hungry kiln.  There was the stacking of the kiln itself which seemed endless.  At least eight table-loads of ware were unloaded into the kiln twice or more.  When the pots were arranged on the tables there were so many it did not look like they could possibly all fit.  There were decisions to make about where to put different sizes and shapes and carefully plan out the shelves and bricks to space and hold the load.  It all makes you appreciate those ancient ones who came before us and I must say those stalwart souls crouched inside our kiln with
temperatures in the 99 to 100 range.  Finally the kiln was bricked up and the slow candling begun.  People had signed up for 4 hour shifts to stoke and back up the stokers around the clock for 5 or 6 days. 
     
There is a real art involved in stoking in order to keep the temperature steady and even and not let it get too hot in one area and cool in an other.  One person is watching a pyrometer and usually two are stoking.  I watched two women who had their timing down so well they almost looked like they were doing a ballet.  This was Nevada City potters, Yvon Dockter and Patricia O'Connor.  Yvon was in charge of the door and also chucking one big chunk of oak and Patricia had two pieces.  Tim was watching the pyrometer.  When he gave the signal Yvon opened the door, Patricia chucked the right hand wood in then the left, (the opening was about 15 inches square) then Yvon chucked hers and slammed the door shut.  They had a real rhythm and shot that wood squarely through the opening rarely banging the kiln.  This is done  within a 10 minute range, sometimes less so you are standing next to the hot kiln, at the ready for four hours!
 
We started unloading the "cooled" kiln six days later on August 30th about 10 a.m.  It was an assembly line operation accompanied occasionally by "oooh's and aaah's" and some groans and can only be described as Christmas in August.  We finished unloading about 4:30 p.m.

During the middle of the day we took a break for a pot luck which was scrumptious -- potters always come through on the food.  During the week of firing, one potter, Paulette, picked fruit from the orchard and made four or five pies!  The whole experience was made wonderful by our hosts Richard and Shirley who gave us the opportunity to come together and offered such gracious hospitality.  To be immersed in the company of so many people of like interests, helping each other - a friendly and welcoming group - it was truly a marvelous time.
 

                   Written By Donna Ward

Sometimes in the frenzy of wadding, lifting, glazing, lugging, loading and laughing I would raise my head and look around. The phrase "Happy Campers" came immediately to mind.

Slightly shocked new arrivals, just now panting for the first time up the hill from the designated parking pasture would pause for breath. Old timers, and by that I mean anyone who had been there for more than two minutes, were swirling and twirling in a dance of communal grace.

There were no idle hands. If one was not involved with the immediate and myriad jobs of getting the huge 25-foot kiln ready to fire, there was always the job of feeding all 25 to 40 people who came and went like the breeze.

Richard English Harvey has created a Garden of Eden. His incredible beautiful and lush grounds fed not only our bellies but also our souls. When we weren't gathering or harvesting, peeling and cooking we were able to stroll the three acres freely. There were tents scattered around the property with artists camping. Each little site was it’s own paradise.

And that was the first day.

Each day brought new people. Sometimes they were local politicians coming to press the flesh. They would wander around asking question and getting enthusiastic answers and explanations. The local press came; an elderly gentleman who stayed a long time, asking questions and looking everywhere at everything. There was a lot to look at.

The fire was going pretty good the day a Boys chorus group came by. The fire fascinated the young pre-adolescent boys. They were torn between looking into the door each time it was stoked and looking at Leona Reber’s naked lady sculptures that were everywhere in various stages of completion.

In the evenings there was feasting. The people who had stoking duty could hear the laughter up at the house. Local musicians came by to play while we ate. Flutes and guitars and voices soared into the evening air. After dinner and the dishes were done spontaneous gabfests would go on long into the night around Richard and Shirley’s gigantic granite oval slab table. People and subjects would change as shifts and sleeping requirements came and went.

Each stoking shift was four hours long, but the work really never stopped. There was wood to be loaded for transport to the stoking area, there was food to be prepared, chickens to be fed, fruit to be gathered. And there was time to learn.

Richard’s huge well-appointed and lovely studio was open to all of us at all times. We shared and created and got to know each other.

Thursday night the sky seemed to answer the fire and flames from the kiln. The rains came. The thunder roared as loudly as the fire from the kiln. The fire and the smoke rolled into the sky and the sky answered our fire with lighting. It was an exciting and humbling experience. Mighty forces of nature. The earth, the water, the fire, the air in all it’s magnificent power.

Anita Posey Lowe and I signed up for a midnight to 4 a.m. shift and a 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. shift. We are still blaming each other for that idiotic decision!

But many willing hands made each job actually enjoyable. Our first shift was easy. All we were required to do was maintain a temperature of 650 degrees through the night. The kiln was cracking and we needed to slow down heat. Our next shift was a full tilt 2400-degree get down, get hot shift. The first time the door was opened for me to toss the wood in I thought my sins were coming due. It was HOT! So hot that at two points the stoking door melted down and would not open. We let it rest while we stoked the rear door. After a while the door would cool enough to open again for a while. It would start to turn red and refuse to open. A crack in the kiln spewed fire and lit the wood piled next to it. We scrambled to put out one fire while keeping the big one going. Every shift was different and every shift had it’s own story to tell.

We had to leave Saturday and things were looking good. In the front chamber of the kiln cone 13 had gone down. The rear chamber had a cone 9 all the way down and cone 10 was starting the bend.

I called Richard Tuesday to find out the final status. He said that before the firing ceased cone 11 had bent in the back chamber. Yay! We were successful!

The kiln was opened Saturday, August 30. The public was invited to the opening. Several locals came to see the "Labor of Love".

At nine a.m. most of the artists had gathered and were getting excited. At 9:30 Richard English Harvey welcomed the artists and guests. Michael led the group in a Christian prayer and everyone participated in the pledge of allegiance to the American flag. With that, Richard turned to tearing out the brick of the kiln doors. As the first layer of bricks came down every one jockeyed for the best camera angle and view inside. There were sighs and moans as the top shelves came into view and it was obvious that the fire had gotten VERY hot!

The shelves were bent and twisted and warped into sometimes-fantastic shapes. The door slowly came down and the total effect was seen at last. The ceiling of the kiln had sagged onto the top of the upper pots and after chipping away at a few tortured and fused together pieces Richard and his helpers moved to the back door.

Much more rewarding results from here. The pieces were passed out of the door and into the waiting hands of a long line of artists and placed onto tables according to their position in the kiln. As the pieces passed from hand to hand every now and then someone would become so enamored of either their piece or just one that was too beautiful to let go. They would follow that piece to the table and someone else would take their place in line. There were shouts when someone would recognize a particularly wonderful piece and calls to the artist to "Come see, Come see". Some artists were moved to tears as their pieces were revealed to have been especially blessed by the kiln gods.

Richard and Daniel and Tim and Michael and Craig and the others were working from inside the kiln and it was a hot, sweaty job. There would be a welcome break as each section was emptied and the photographers moved in to take pictures of the newly exposed layers. After lunch and water breaks the lines would form and the pieces would start to emerge once more.

We ran out of tables and started to use the wedging table and the tables in the studio.

Steadily we worked in the hot sun. Marie’s partner Bert helped the line keep rhythm with his saxophone. He played all afternoon. What an incredibly powerful diaphragm he must have. Every now and then a visitor would come up the hill and look at the thousand or more pots and sculptures arrayed on more than 10 long tables. It was amazing how many pieces there were. Even with damage to the ware at the front, there was actually very little damage. One extremely large pot entertained us by cracking and popping pieces off itself all afternoon.