Friday, August 9, 2013

Dragon Kiln @ Jalan Bahar

Date:  Aug 8, 2013

My wife got only one hobby.  Make Pottery.

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So, after you make the pottery.  What do you do?  You bring it to the Dragon Kiln and fire it.

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So, today, the whole day, on aug 8, she has to be in the Dragon Kiln @ Jalan Bahar.  So, me and kids hang out with their friends at the bowling place.

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Let's talk about Ceramic Process.

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So, after you have form the clay.  You need to bring it to the 1st Firing at about 1000 degree Celsius.

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All clay work goes into this small little furnace.

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Then, you fire it up.

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Adjust the fire to the heat they wanted.

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You can see thru the hole the inside.  The clays are cooking.

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 Belowis the video clip on how it fire up the furnace.

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/v/CQsji_XBRHk

It is very hot there.  Don't get too near.

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/v/PhDLHz8eo4M

By the way, this is the Dragon Kiln.  But they don't fire the ceramics here nowadays.

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I think if you want to add a certain special effects on your ceramics, then, you will need this thing here.  Where you bury your art work, and fire it under the hot temperature.

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It is just like cooking a soup.

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That cool looking chap with sun glasses is Mr. Chew.  My wife's pottery teacher.

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Place all your master piece inside.

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There you go.  All these ugly clays before the fire.

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So, you wait there for long time for the temperature to goes up.

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One hour later.  Almost 1000 degrees.

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After 1-2 hours later.  It is time to reveal the art works.

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Mr. Chew going to remove the clay pieces.

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Students, please help to open up the cover.

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One piece by one piece take out from the furnace.

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Place the ceramic piece into that container.  Pour in more sands.  Looks pretty hot.

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More sands.

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Quickly.  Cover it.

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Let all the pots stay inside there do hot sand bathing.  hahaha

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Will open this in a while.

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Too bad.  This one did not make it.  hahahaha

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About 30 min later.  It should be cooked.

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Wah.. even more ugly after the firing.

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Then, you soak them in the water for cooling.

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It looks damn ugly when it first came out.

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After taking a nice bath.  Take a look at that glazing… not too bad huh?

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Another firing furnace.

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Another few art pieces.

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Making ceramics nowadays also incorporate a lot of science in there.

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They used a lot of chemicals to make it nice.

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Don't know what they do.  

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But if you mix them together and apply to the ceramic, some nice thing will happen.  hahaha

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See what I mean.  Chemicals.

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Look.  Another red hot ceramics.

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Same process.

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Fire fire all the way.

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Is it too toxic the air?  See what they are wearing.

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So, they keep doing this batches by batches.

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Where are the kids now?  Playing pool.  hahaha.  

Note that… I am not at Jalan Bahar, my wife is.  I am virtually there.  And after she came back, she said, all these are the photos.  You know what to do.  hahaha

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Batches by batches, the art pieces went thru firing.  Some glazing one need to go thru 2 times.

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There you go.  My wife's product.

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Some of these made by Jay Jay.

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Jay Jay's Volcano.

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Let's take a good photo.

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Not too bad.  Jay Jay made some of these too.

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Oh.  They learned this technique this week.

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It's all hard work.  So clean properly,. ok!

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Happy bunch of teacher and students.

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OK.  That night, almost 9am.  After 12 hours spending time at the kiln, my wife is back with all the art pieces.

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Jay Jay was so happy.

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He made this.

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And this too.

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Let's take picture with your ceramics.

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I think this is Jay Jay best product.

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Can you see my signature behind?  J A Y

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My wife made this.

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This ...

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This...

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This ...

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that...

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That concludes the story of ceramic firing at Jalan Bahar.  

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