Sunday, October 19, 2008

2008 Burlon Craig Pottery Festival

The Burlon Craig Pottery Festival was held on Saturday. I went out there with Greg and the kids for the second year. It's a wonderful event that I would recommend to everyone whether you are a potter or not. Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to see a lot of the pottery that was for sale since we spent most of our time around the kiln.

The kiln was stocked with about 300 pots that were made in the last six weeks. It took 2 to 2 1/2 hours to load it and more than eighteen hours to fire it. By the time we left, the firing part was over and it was time to start waiting for it to burn out and cool down.

The music was great. The food was delicious. The people were amazing. Did I mention they were firing the kiln?

Adrienne asked Dwayne to unlock the pottery studio and I took some pictures of Burlon's treadle wheel and the electric wheel he had to use later. It was like being in church.

I had a great time and judging by the people I talked to, everyone else did too.

Thanks Don, Dwayne, and Adrienne.


Adrienne stoking the kiln.
It can get to more than 2000F here
hence the heavy clothing.


Adrienne interacting with the fans.


Hot kiln.
Standing back here behind the wood pile got pretty warm
so I can only imagine what it felt like to be up front stoking it.


More heat.


Adrienne and Dwayne.


The firebox.


Greg, Eloise, and Bill.



Adrienne and some fans.


Stoked.


The chimney end of the kiln.


The pots through the chimney end peephole.


One of Don's snake jugs in progress.


Burlon's treadle wheel.

The rest of the pictures can be found here.


2 comments:

Amy said...

Wow... these are incredible pics. thanks for sharing. how fun it would be to put pieces in a kiln this big!

jbf said...

It's quite amazing. You need to go next year and see it first hand.