All my work is fired in a wood fuelled anagama/tunnel type kiln.

The kiln is derived from traditional Japanese Anagama kilns, where the flames hit the pots directly.  During the woodfiring ash flies through the kiln, settling on the pots and melting to form glass. The flames slightly melt the surface of the pots where they touch them, leaving traces of the flame path. This combination of fire and molten ash can create a huge and exciting range of surfaces and effects.

The fuel is essentially recycled solar energy. It is an amazing and elemental process which fascinates me.

My kiln is unusual, designed to be as efficient as possible whilst still achieving the effects of woodfiring.  Its flues return underneath the floor to chimneys near the front, getting more heat out of the flames before they exit the kiln.  Anagama kilns are often fired for in excess of three days.  I fire to 1340 °C in just 25-30 hours, producing individual results from a vastly reduced amount of wood. As far as I know I am the only person to build cross-draft kilns in this way.

The fuel is waste wood: off-cuts from sawmills supplied from properly managed sustainable sources.

The kilns shown in this section are the three anagama type kilns I have built since setting up my first workshop. All feature the underfloor return of the flues, but the design has been adapted and refined each time. Plans can be downloaded from the building page for each kiln.

All photographs in this section are taken by me unless credited otherwise