My Wadding Froze, too

Chiminea is keeping us warm
during early stoking

I read about a potter who was loading his kiln yesterday, and he said it was so cold his wadding was freezing before he could attach it to his pots. Wadding is material (which includes clay, sand and some kind of combustible material usually) that is placed underneath pots in a wood-fired or salt-fired kiln. It protects the pot from sticking to the shelf, basically.

Well, Levi and I loaded the wood-fired kiln today... ...and my wadding started freezing toward the end of the day. It was cold and windy. I'm exhausted. But Levi is out there now, stoking away under the fire grate so we have a head start when we get up in the morning.

Levi had a great idea early in the day: Bring our chiminea over where we were working to help keep us warm. It worked. Now, he's out there sitting next to it, the flame licking out the top.

The pots in the kiln: