THE BEVALT WOODFIRE KILN

I built my kiln in the summer and fall of 1995, with help from my long-time friend and fellow ceramics artist, Ken Turner. The kiln is dedicated to and named after my mother, Beverly, and father, Walter, both of whom passed away in May, 1999.

Kiln dimensions:
6 feet wide, 3 feet deep, and 6 feet high. The fire box is built into the kiln, with no bag wall (the pieces being fired act as a bag wall). The kiln has fired in as short of a time as 20 hours and for as long as 72 hours.

When I’m loading the kiln, the shelves are stacked in a criss-cross pattern. This forces the flame, as it rises to the top, to follow the pattern of the shelves, rather than be forced across the floor and out the stack. The stack, 15 feet high, is constructed of single-walled hard brick.

The kiln is doubled-walled, with hard brick on the inside and soft brick on the outside. It features a six-foot, k26 soft-brick sprung-arch downdraft. The kiln shelves, 14 inches wide by 28 inches long, are made of silicon carbide, either 1/4" or 3/4" thick. The thicker shelves are placed toward the bottom; the lighter ones, on top.

I try to fire the kiln four times a year: twice in the spring, once in the fall, and once in the winter. I burn fir, pine, oak, maple, apple, alder, and other varieties of wood. My kiln sits on the Muxens’ farm in Orting, Washington.