I am a native and current resident of eastern Washington. I grew up in Wenatchee, Washington and now reside in East Wenatchee, which is across the Columbia River. One hundred twenty miles to the north, up U.S. 97, is the small town of Tonasket. My grandparents, Everett and Dorothy Lynch are buried there. Grandfather worked as a District Ranger for the U.S. Forest Service, retiring around 1955. In 1952, the year I was born, he threw his first commercial pot, a low-fire red clay with a transparent lead glaze. He continued to work with clay until a stroke took away the feeling in his fingertips in 1983.
As a child and as I grew into a teen, whenever I stayed with my grandparents, Grandpa would let me watch him work with clay and would explain what he was doing and why. He let me make things and would then fire them for me. When my object came out of the kiln less than perfect, he would explain to me what the problem was. My favorite memory is of looking into the kiln as he was firing. He told me the cones would bend when the kiln was hot enough, about 2000 degrees fahrenheit. "How hot is that?" I asked. "Hot enough to melt the glaze but not hot enough to melt the clay," he said.
Grandfather passed away in 1988. I had earlier finished a fun but lackluster career as a musician, was married with a child, in college, a year from graduation. A couple of years later, graduated and just finished with a miserable divorce, I noticeably lacked a creative outlet. Working as a teacher in Everett, Washington, I took a walk down Broadway Avenue and passed Donna's Pottery and Bead Shop. Donna Ball, the owner was in. We conversed for a while and before you know it, I was walking out of there with two twenty-five pound bags of clay. I had no wheel, I had no kiln. My first objects were tiles I rolled out on my kitchen table. I used a meat tenderizing hammer to give them some texture and decoration. I took them back to Donna who bisque fired them for me and then sold me some glaze. I glazed them and took them back to Donna. After seeing the final result, I was hooked.
I married the Spanish teacher at the high school I taught at, got a job teaching in Wenatchee. After moving, I bought a kiln. I sold my car and bought a clunker truck to get enough money. Why a kiln and not a wheel? The clay needs to be fired, that's why. Without it, you have to find somebody to do it for you. I wanted to learn and control the process. I set up a small studio in the back room and went to work. Pretty soon, I had saved enough money to buy a wheel, a Pacifica GT 800 that I still have 14 years later.
After a few moves and a couple of kids, my wife and I bought a house. The garage became the studio. I became interested in wood firing more out of necessity than anything else. I had an electric kiln but wanted to do reduction firing. So, I built an Olsen Fast-Fire wood kiln. It had about ten square feet of stacking space and two fire boxes, one on each side of the kiln. If everything went well, I could hit cone ten or eleven in about fifteen to nineteen hours. At first my wife helped me stoke but in the interest of keeping our marriage healthy, decided not to anymore.
I continued using the wood kiln as my primary kiln. In 2001, I had a heart incident. Not exactly an attack but enough of something to get me to the hospital. Turns out I had an 80% blockage in left ventricular artery and a 40% blockage somewhere else. After some angioplasty and a stent implant, I was turned loose. Deciding to cut back on my woodfiring due to the hard labor aspect, I bought an updraft, top-loading, propane fired kiln. I last fired my wood kiln in Spring 2005.
Now we are getting ready to move again. We bought a lovely house with an out building for the studio and a roofed area for the kiln. I plan on building another wood fired kiln and want to build a downdraft propane-fired kiln. It will take a while to get it all up and running. For now, I am trying to use up all my clay so I don't have to move it.
For a photo of me with a big bulky sweater and some of my work click here
A Short Note 4-25-2006: My wife and I signed the papers on our new house today. I've torn down the wood kiln at the old place. The Boy Scouts came over last week and hauled all the brick to the new place. 1000 hard brick! they worked hard but seemed to enjoy it. I'm planning on a catenary arch downdraft kiln in the kiln shed. My wife told me today that that was our summer project. The stacking space may be smaller but I like the design of the catenary arch. I should be using fewer brick for the kiln body which is good as I'll need the extra in order for the chimney to reach above the peak of the building.
The building of the kiln has begun! Click here: Building A Kiln