Let’s face it – bricks are boring. They are rectangular, made of clay, and simply used as literal ‘building’ blocks for utilitarian purposes. I thought this way for decades. I have used firebricks to build gas, sagger, wood, and raku kilns. Aside from the sprung arch I used in most of my constructions, the basic body of the kilns was usually a clay cube. I changed my mind when I taught a workshop in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, in 2004.
We visited a brick yard to buy clay for my course. The brick-making process was actually quite intriguing. First, there was no fixed studio for production. The brick-makers went where the clay was. They would scope out a good location with water, natural clay deposits, and room to make and fire the bricks. The clay was then dug, mixed with horse manure and water, and then formed into bricks by hand, using a wooden mold. The bricks dried in the sun and when they were ready, the unfired bricks were stacked as greenware to create their own wood-fired kiln. After
