Peter Thompson's anagama 2
SideStoke home | Peter Thompson home | Anagama home

Cardboard on the floor is for comfort and to protect the sand. Flash on the camera has caused shiny reflections from the ash glaze build-up on the interior of the kiln.

The kiln is fired for a minimum of 72 hours using mainly Black Cypress (Callistris calcarata) and a local Acacia. The Acacia grows in rainforest country, and the Black Cypress is transported from drier areas inland. Peter uses final stage reduction with natural cooling, as explained here. He uses clay bodies which are developed from local clays. The pots are mainly bisqued before firing in the anagama, and frequently glazed with a shino type glaze whose main ingredient is soda felspar.

The pots are usually packed upright but some tumble stacking is employed near the side stoke ports. Mud oyster shells are used along with his wad clay brew.

Peter at the firebox end of the kiln.

The hole for insertion of a pyrometer must be kept blocked to prevent wasps building a nest in it. These are potting wasps: their nests are made from clay, and they also like to block teapot spouts before or after firing.

The circular port is an observation port, and the rectangular port is one of three sidestoking ports on each side of the kiln.

At right: exit flues. The kiln is packed tightly at the back and it is the pots, rather than the exit flues or the damper setting, which determine the cross sectional area available for exiting kiln gases.

The pots do not sit directly on the silica sand layer on the floor. Clay wads, made from a mixture of Frax fireclay and silica sand, are used to support the pots.