Stoned...

Between the black flys, mosquitos, midges, and leaches, and my random idiocy, I have probably left quite a few gallons of my blood up there.
but the ironic thing is, after years of fieldwork, my most serious injuries were a hangover after a long afternoon meeting and night at the Library in Houghton, and a broken knee I got when presenting my work in Marquette.
No more dress shoes or pretending to be a well-mannered professional for me.
I don’t belong in the city.
I amin LA city right now, hope I survive it.
speaking of surviving LA, a friend of mine is on the Louisiana coast in a home-made RV, he built it himself from a school bus. I haven’t heard from him since the day of the storm. I hope he is OK.
 
Crawforde said:
Between the black flys, mosquitos, midges, and leaches, and my random idiocy, I have probably left quite a few gallons of my blood up there.
but the ironic thing is, after years of fieldwork, my most serious injuries were a hangover after a long afternoon meeting and night at the Library in Houghton, and a broken knee I got when presenting my work in Marquette.
No more dress shoes or pretending to be a well-mannered professional for me.
I don’t belong in the city.
I amin LA city right now, hope I survive it.
speaking of surviving LA, a friend of mine is on the Louisiana coast in a home-made RV, he built it himself from a school bus. I haven’t heard from him since the day of the storm. I hope he is OK.
Click to expand...
Y’know?... I’ve spent time living in places like Detroit, Eugene and Norfolk... (and to a lesser extent Appleton and Green Bay) as a younger “me”. I always THOUGHT that I could “do” the city life.
As I get older, I realize that I’m truly, ...deeply... “country as hell”.. and a bit of a reclusive person to the unperceptive eye... so a more isolated home is what I long for.

I do like VISITING big cities....

And I like having friends over, and visiting people...

But my solitude is of tremendous importance to me as well...

And silence... seek “true” silence... It’s like years of therapy in one “swing”

Pardon the “arrangement” of those previous sentences.
...I’m a tad stoned.
🤣
 
HorseloverFat said:
I heard speak, on a @Pitoon thread.. about repurposing kitchen appliances for mame kilns..

Then, JUST as I was starting to “whip up” a fresh batch of Aluminum Oxide... I saw this deep fryer and started considering things.View attachment 394920
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Honestly I don't that deep fryer will work. I think you would be better off finding an old propane tank and converting that into a mini kiln.
 
Pitoon said:
Honestly I don't that deep fryer will work. I think you would be better off finding an old propane tank and converting that into a mini kiln.
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Haha!! Yeah.. I gotta finish my low-fire wood-fired kiln first.. too many projects..
🤓
 
🤨 The "thing" happened, and it wouldn't start the conversation because it couldn't recognize either of you -- 🤨

SO...
here we go, I hope... Piece by piece...

With great thanks to @meushi for generously sharing all this when I asked!

The hibachi is just used as a pre-built base for a "chinese steamer" style updraft kiln. Additional ceramic cylinders (firing chambers) stack on top of the hibachi base, they are reinforced with steel wire/bands on the outside. The advantage of the "chinese steamer" design is that you can reorder the firing chambers as you see fit during the firing session. The other two modifications are: a thermoprobe is inserted in one of the firing chambers to check the burn temperature and a forced air supply is used to reach the required temperature (hair dryer or high CFM fan).

The small kiln uses a mix of charcoal and wood, the wood ashes will form the random glaze when hitting the red hot ceramic bodies. It normally takes about 3 hours for the mini kiln to reach temperature, instead of up to a week required in a full sized anagama. This lets you fire your project on your own or with just one assistant. The full size beast requires 3 teams to man the stations 24/7 between lighting and unloading.

There's an English translated version of Akira Yoshida's "minigama" handbook floating around showing how to build your own from scratch... using the traditional anagama layout, a vertical "chinese steamer" layout and a dual chamber layout. Those designs can be scaled up a bit to accomodate bonsai pots, as the firing chamber was designed for a sake set. Of course, scaling up means the firing will be longer. The person selling the translated version used to be reachable through naokojee@yahoo.com but I don't know if the address is still current. Her Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/listing/14148108/translated-minigama-booklet?ref=vt_related_1marks the booklet as sold out but it's worth contacting her just in case if you're interested. I have the booklet somewhere on a shelf.

Here's a website showing the build of an anagama style minigama
ミニ窯-artzui （Let's try ミニ窯づくり）

The same Akira Yoshida experimented with hibachi-based kilns and published a book or two on the subject :)

https://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/ASIN/407231515X/qid=1071469241/250-2480393-5814601 <- hibachi/shichirin
https://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/books/4575291226/250-2480393-5814601 <- minigama
https://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obido...1071470882/250-2480393-5814601?language=en_US <- paper kiln, used to bisque fire
https://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/ASIN/4575296325/qid=1071470830/250-2480393-5814601 <- Jomon pottery, pre-historical lower temperature fired clay.
 
Thanks!
That is something I will look into when I get home.
throwing stuff in my fire pit in the backyard has had some decent results, but mostly failures.
 
(And a bit more)

They can also be made out of brick and refractory cement if you have a dedicated spot for them. The minigama design was also to allow you to take your mini kiln to events like group firings. Wood fired kilns and mini kilns are an incredible rabbit hole :)

Thanks again, @meushi 🤩
 
P.S., I ought to have said that my side of the conversation isn't included -- it was just me being really thrilled at such generous answers to a question about a post in "What's your latest bonsai-related purchase" -- a magazine in Japanese, and a mention of the contents, incl. hibachi as kiln for mame pots!
(I think that was right as my 18+ y.o. dog was taking a turn for the worse, or I couldn't have forgotten so thoroughly 'til now.)
meushi said:
I believe the last book on the list above is for no-kiln low-temp fired pottery :)
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You'll make a number of people very happy here, I suspect!
 
TinyArt said:
...details to discover from every angle, and always a play of light & shadow...
just a pleasure to see & imagine as a 4-seasons accent 😀
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Thank you!! Hopefully the owner will be able to chime in a little bit, explaining their plans for it.
 
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