In the late summer of 2001, after the final inspection for my newly-built house was complete, I watched as my builder, Bob Cornelius, drove down the driveway for the last time. I’ll never forget the mix of promise and loneliness in that moment. Then I started construction of my own wood-fired kiln. It was always supposed to be temporary.

For 22 years, visitors to the studio would ask, “Who built it for you? Not only had I laid every brick myself, I had used a hammer and chisel to split the bricks where necessary. Twenty-two years and ninety-five firings later, that little kiln was still going strong.

For the last couple of years though, every time I fired it, I would watch the flame, listen to the sizzle of firewood, and imagine what I’d do differently with the next kiln. (I may write more about the specifics in a future essay.) Last fall, after much wavering, I pulled that first kiln down brick by brick and began again.

Unlike 2001, now I have a husband, Mark Saxe, who has not only decades of masonry expertise but also every masonry tool known to man (and woman). I have some of the confidence that comes from having built and fired one long-lasting kiln. I have the trepidation of working on a massive project usually thought of as man’s work. And this time around, I have an earnest and hard-working helper, Tori Nicoletti, who magically appeared at just the right time.

Our tiny crew is getting it done, but at the same time, we’re far from alone. We have tools.

TOOLS, like BOOKS, connect us to the larger world - to the collective experience of humans who have shaped ideas and materials with precision, patience and purpose, allowing us to benefit from millennia of cultural know-how and knowledge.

The tools and materials we’ve used so far - in no particular order - include: brick saw, spirit level, torpedo level, measuring tape, trammel points, crayons, chalk line, cement mixer, trowels of all kinds, joiners of all kinds, mason’s block and twine, hammer, chisel, screw gun, screws, skill saw, square, speed square, mixer, sieve, plumb bob, sponge, scraper (aka “Mr. Yellow”), mallet, whisk broom, hose, wheelbarrow, Darby float, screed board, brick scrubber, low duty firebrick, medium duty firebrick, high duty firebrick, arch brick, insulating fire brick, refractory mortar, thinset, Quikrete, sand, castable refractory, knife, plywood, shovel, scoop, buckets, diamond grinder, dust masks, safety glasses, one inch mild steel bar stock, steel cutting saw, safety mask, ear muffs, wrenches, etc. We’ve been through many, many pairs of gloves. And my copy of friend and mentor, Fred Olsen’s “The Kiln Book” is always open to one page or another. Thank you for all the help, fellow humans.

. . .

My ONLINE solo show at CLAY AKAR opens on Friday, September 13, 2024, at 9am Mountain Daylight Time. Thank you so much to each of YOU who made the show successful last time (January of 2023).

Much of the imagery for the pieces in this show is inspired by the intensive work of the last several months - bricks in bag walls, bricks as rubble, bricks as exit flues, brick walls, arches, plumb lines, neatly spaced steel bars, as well as the grasses surrounding our work site and the grove of thistles on the other side of the firewood, neatly stacked, waiting patiently for the first firing.

Please mark your calendars and visit the link below when the show opens. Thank you.