Kiln Building

Jared began the process of building a modified Japanese style manabigama dual chamber wood kiln in the spring of 2010.  This process has truly been a labor of love and will soon mark a turning point for Lifefire Pottery.  The kiln has been part of Jared’s dream since his early days of pottery making.  Plans were purchased to build the kiln, but in true Lifefire style, Jared kept bits and pieces of the renderings, but expanded the entire project to build a kiln we can’t imagine outgrowing anytime soon!  Collecting the material involved two road trips to the ceramics department of a university in Illinois.  The university was making some changes and Lifefire bought the hodge podge of bricks from them.  One trip, with Jared’s brother Jason & a second trip with Janet (who was actually very newly pregnant at the time but didn’t even know)-both took quite a bit of sweat equity, but resulted in a giant collection of soft bricks and fire bricks that would help us begin the construction.  The bricks were stacked in truck and trailer and brought home in a 2-3 day turnaround each time.  Concrete was poured for the foundation and the stacking began.  When questions would arise about the methods or the process, Jared adopted a mantra:  Less thinking.  More stacking.  And this is what we did.

The kiln building proceeded in spurts where life would allow.  Now, there’s only slightly more tweaking to be done, but the kiln is set to be fired in 2016.  6 years of labor amidst a hectic schedule of family, pottery classes, and the family’s other business ventures will finally manifest itself in a great celebration as we await the naming and christening of the kiln.  Jared, Janet, and even Jovi have all worked together to lay every brick.

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