In 1978 and ’79, my friends Arnie Zimmerman, Barry Bartlett, Woody Hughs and I collected some 15,000 brick from a defunct brick factory on the Hudson River. Those brick found their way into this kiln in 1997, when a group of my students from the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth helped me over a period of a year construct this hybrid version of a Bizen style hill kiln.
The kiln was rebuilt in 2005. It has three chambers: the tube kiln, approximately 400 cubic feet of stacking space; the large second soda chamber, approximately 100 cubic feet; and the small catenary residual chamber, approximately 30 cubic feet of stacking space. We use about eight cords of wood for the firing, a mixture of both oak and pine.
The kiln takes four days to load, six days to fire, and up to two weeks to cool. A typical loading/firing cycle will be ten days in length, with unloading 1-2 weeks later, depending on schedule. We fire the kiln twice a year, in mid-fall and late spring.
If you are interested in participating in the firings or visiting us during a firing, email me at gustinceramics@gmail.com for information.