Rocket Kilns, Gourds, Wild Clay Tiles, Fishies and August on the Farm

welcome to a blue blog! It’s our new newsletter to keep supporters updated, make open calls for resident, volunteer and student opportunities and share our silly, serious process :) If you subscribe to our newsletter, you’ll receive these posts directly to your email, too!

First things first: We love small scale J-tube technology so much. The lore I go by is that these super efficient wood burners were developed in Guatemala in the ‘80s to make better use of fuel during cooks for large gatherings. For me, Lisa Orr brought the tech of rocket kilns to the pottery world (no relation to Summer Orr—blue resident of April ‘26—that we know of, except that Summer is also uncannily clever, creative and generous), and rocket kilns are becoming an accessible way to fire pottery quickly and safely.

So! We’ve been learning the tech to translate it for ceramic exploration and for our outdoor event kitchen space (and very much want to build them for others in the area)! They run on soft pine sticks (the skinnier the better)—maybe a wheelbarrow or two to get to 2,250 degrees for the farm clay; much less for our insulated oven and griddle top from modified plans by Year of the Mud. Pictured is Michael and Romana working on the firebrick and cob of the oven.* We sourced an old coal shoot door for the oven opening, found a mantle, will build up the chimney, use fallen pines to construct a weatherproof roof, and we’re saving up for a $300 3’x4’ carbon steel griddle top if you know anyone that wants to contribute—hopefully by November for a “soft opening” community party, gallery exhibition and open studio tour. I’ve already ran a water line to the outdoor sink, filtered the well water for potability and we’ve built an open great grill to compliment the kitchen’s capacity. Once we have a banquet table in the fields, we might as well become a wedding venue? Maybe one or two in the Fall…

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Sam Young, an artist and organizer out of Compton, CA, was just here to learn the build as she introduced herself to wild clay, making stacking offering bowls. Her spirit and rigorous dedication to a full understanding of every food, material and philosophy that touches her life matched and raised blue farm ambitions. We moved the first rocket kiln to the new kiln shed and built a second next to it. Now, the first kiln pad/shed can house a larger, classic woodfire kiln being donated by Randy Gressly, an OG potter in the area and alumni of Manchester Craftsman Guild in Pittsburgh.

Sam got her first stoking experience and learned a lot about fuel and airflow, already understanding tweaks to the build that would improve control and efficiency. We got to cone 6 in almost exactly 3 hours, and sprayed baking soda into the kiln for a flash effect on student pieces. I’m excited for this tech to return to Compton! And a deep thank you to Sam.

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Earlier in the month, Petra Floyd, artist, designer and gourd extraordinaire based out of Pittsburgh returned for a stint in the woodshop to continue their practice. By next spring, I hope our keyhole gardens developed through imported local topsoil and continued composting will be able to grow gourds for them. See how lovely their work is below and follow their website to find them exhibiting in Pittsburgh. Since first meeting, I’ve been struck with how much respect and admiration they have for the gourd as historical, cultural material and art object. It’s something I try to name often—how many artists begin to take the material they know so well for granted. Petra sows their practice from seed every year.

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And Azzah Sultan has returned to A Blue Farm! the space that once featured her gallery last summer now the glass studio, her mirrored school of fish chandeliers still hanging from last year reflecting her current practice. She lives in the first fully renovated resident apartment (former grain house; see progress shots below of the bathroom’s wild farm clay tiles), and continues her independent exploration of clay, glass and the scale and scope of her paintings. I’m thinking it would be nice for the blog to host resident artists as guest writers before their departure.

The rest of this month, I’ll be posting newsletters and summaries of this past year to retroactively populate a blue blog and provide a deeper sense of all the progress and people that the land has witnessed to date, and I’ll be sharing “open calls” for projects, builds, galleries, specific residencies and collaborations that are on the forefront. We’ve gotten to this point because of such sincere faith from early supporters, and I’m so proud to know we’ve shown up for them.

If you see a specific project you want to donate to, or want to donate to our general fund that feeds and supports our ever-expanding roster of artists, apprentices and those on scholarship, please don’t hesitate to donate directly, share your enthusiasm with your trusted circle, and/or contact me by phone or email. Due to a lack of funding, some really wonderful artists have had to defer their residency until 2027. 100% of your donations go towards direct support of the people that visit a blue farm, and the programs that enrich their lives.

More to come! Our community programming for clay and glass have finally begun! I’m excited to share.

-nick

founder, a blue farm