Last Saturday (Oct 31) Len and Tania, with fingers crossed in anticipation, entered the still warm belly of the Anagama kiln to find out how successful this year’s wood firing had been. I think the photo below shows the general reaction: a smile on Len’s face as he surveys the assembled pots.
To recap the events leading up to this, the process was quite simple in the telling:
1. Insert unfired pots 
2. Add a few tonnes of wood 
3. Burn (m-f) Burn for 100 hrs 
Voila! Beautifull smoke/ash glazed pots!
As Len tells it, the secret to this year’s success was getting sufficiently high temperatures in both the front and back of the kiln. While Len and Tania carefully monitored the digital temperature display throught the process, the final indicator that the heat was right was verified by the appearance of the “kiln cones”. Six cones were set up in the front and back of the kiln and the hope was that at least 5 of these would melt or soften enough to droop. The photo below shows the array of front cones from this year’s firing with the same front cones from a previous firing behind them. Clearly this year went better than previously with even the last cone drooping noticeably.
There was a huge range of pots that emerged from the kiln and each one had a unique glaze with rich colurs ranging from brown, to red, gold, green, cream and even swirls of black from carbon soot trapped beneath the glaze.
Some of the favourites individual pots of those who helped in the unpacking are shown below, but you will need to inspect them once they have been sorted and presented in Len’s studio to decide on your own personal favourite.
JLP 
Text by Jamie Oliver
Photos by Juanita Poletto (JLP) & Jamie Oliver
Great article Jamie and Juanita and what a great photographic record of the firing process. Congratulations to Len and Tania on the success of the 2020 firing. Unpacking the kiln with Len and the small team of enthusiast helpers was like unpacking lots of presents at Christmas time. What a privilege to have this opportunity. There are some superb pieces in Len’s new collection and I urge everyone to go check them out in the gallery. I guarantee it will be hard to pick just one favourite and I have my name on at least a couple of pieces already! Beautiful work Len!!