a couple weeks ago i received an email from don brimberry, a potter who i have known for a few years. he told me about this lady named jan fleming in austin who was retiring from being a potter and was looking to give away her gas kiln and sell some kiln shelves to a young potter who might need it and he had given her my name. the kiln was about 30+ years old and made entirely of 2300 degree ifb so i figured i might get some useable brick but i was more interested in the kiln shelves. my friend todd who lives in austin accompanied me to disassemble the kiln. jan told us she wanted to save about 100 brick to build a small kiln to tinker with and the rest were ours. this kiln was pretty big, i could stand inside it if that gives any impression. we had the kiln taken down to the last few rows in about 2 and half hours. the kiln was very well built and the number of brick that were too bad to be used were less than 20. so in all i ended up with somewhere between 900-1000 brick, over half of which are in almost new condition. she also gave me 5 old 12x24 and 13 12x12 kiln silicon carbide shelves that she had used in a salt kiln years and years ago. she also had about 100 10x20 silicon carbide shelves that she wanted to sell. i didn't think i was going to be able to afford any but asked her what she wanted for them so i could maybe get a couple. she said $3 each. she initially 30+ years ago only paid $5 for them. i talked her up to $4 and took 12 of them. i tried to take a couple photos of the haul but my camera was dead, wouldn't be that interesting anyways, you've seen one ifb you've seen them all.
so in all i got nearly 1000 ifb,17 full kiln shelves,and 13 half shelves all for $48 and a tank of gas. i am extrememly grateful and feel very blessed. i promised jan that whatever i didn't use i'd pass on to another young potter. i hope someday i'll be able to do the same for someone else.
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5 comments:
You must be living right, that's mighty good karma! I need someone like that to come along in NC, I even have garnt money I can give them!
that's great. years ago i was staying out at dan anderson's for an anagama firing. bob archambeau was there as he is for almost all of the firings. we were up in dan's gallery one day and bob was showing me some of his recent work. there was a beautiful bottle that i was admiring. i asked him how much and he told me to take it. i was floored and said that i couldn't but he told me that one day a young potter will ask me for a pot and i should give it to him. i'm sure i've told this story before either on my blog or in a comment somewhere but your story reminds me of the generosity of potters...both established and emerging.
That's awesome. I had a potter give me 15 used silicon carbide shelves when I built my salt kiln. It was such a blessing. They are still in use despite some cracks. He also gave me a head of cabbage that day.
Potter's are such a generous bunch. I try to give as much I can, I whatever way I can.
I'm using an L & L electric kiln that was given to me and it still in it's box and pallet! One of these days I imagine I'll have a chance to give back to somebody who's starting out and needs a break.
that is so awesome. Reminds me of the time i picked up 1500 pounds of grolleg and stoneware plus a nice little kick wheel for 50 bucks from a awesome old lady about an hour from me. man i love potters.
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