Chapter 229 - 103: Pottery Making (2)
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During the week after the first pottery firing on the 26th, Chen Zhou focused on researching the clay mixture proportions, kiln temperature, and firing times.
When a brother from a forum missed a line, it often meant the sacrifice of dozens of pottery pieces.
He failed so many times that he even dug a pit specifically for burying "defectives."
Relying on his understanding of metal heat treatment and the thought process cultivated by modern educational systems, Chen Zhou built a mansion of pottery-making experience in his mind with lines of data on his notebook.
In the succeeding days, the number of successfully fired small pottery pieces increased.
Small cups, tea pots, small flower pots, and an array of ceramic dolls filled the bedroom windowsill.
Apart from increased success rates, Chen Zhou's skills in molding clay objects also improved significantly.
Currently, his most satisfying creation is a square teapot.
When making this vessel, he used the technique of rolling clay into rods and stacking them layer by layer.
After initially forming the teapot that resembled a "Michelin Tire Man," he made a hole on one side and installed the prefabricated spout.
Then on the other side, he attached the handle.
Once the rough piece was made, Chen Zhou used a dagger or iron piece to smooth the gaps between the clay rods, trimming the entire vessel until it was symmetrical and tidy, finally smoothing the interior unevenness of the teapot, thus completing its preparation.
This square teapot took more than seven hours just for the initial preparation, and during the firing process, Chen Zhou was on edge, fearing that his hard work would be destroyed.
Fortunately, the result did not disappoint him. This square pot, somewhat akin in manufacturing to porcelain, withstood the fire's test and transformed into a true functional item, blending aesthetics and practicality.
However, without glaze, although the pot didn't leak, it absorbed some water when left filled for a long time, which wasn't perfect.
The forum brother mentioned glazing in "Little Tips," but in a rather brief manner.
He only said the glaze slurry was made from mud, ash, and some rocks, with a ratio of mud to ash approximately ten to one.
As for what specifically constituted the mix in the glaze slurry.
What kind of "mud" it was and what type of "ash" was not detailed; needless to say, it was up to him to explore on his own.
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August 5, after finishing the firing of a new batch of pottery and seeing no significant cracks or deformations, Chen Zhou felt it was time to build a large kiln and start preparing for larger vessels.
After deliberating on what materials to use for the large kiln, he finally decided on white clay.
This was because cut stone bricks, though hard, couldn't withstand high temperatures; they were okay for building houses or walls but would definitely collapse when building a pottery kiln.
In terms of heat resistance, white clay was the expert.
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Unlike small kilns, the large kilns were entirely built with white clay bricks, and the taller they were stacked, the greater the pressure at the bottom, increasing the risk of collapse.
During the construction of this kiln, Chen Zhou mixed in broken straw and wheat stalks into the white clay bricks and inserted wooden rods from top to bottom.
By fully utilizing the mechanical properties of the materials, the load-bearing capacity of the components could be enhanced, and the structural strength of the kiln could be increased.
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The small kiln was circular, while the large kiln was square, with a ground height of about two meters, and the interior furnace could fit a small jar or about a dozen larger pots.
Construction began on August 5 and wasn't completed until August 9 for the large kiln.
Affected by Chen Zhou's obsessive-compulsive tendencies, the shape of the entire kiln was very regular, clashing with the rough-hewn rock-strewn platform and crudely made kiln caves.
Owing to its massive size, the kiln was divided into two lower furnace layers and an upper pottery firing area, so the internal hardening process couldn't be completed in one go.
Back when the lower furnace was built and the latest model dried white clay slabs were placed inside, Chen Zhou filled it with wood and let a fierce fire blaze.
Once the upper pottery firing area and smoke vent were constructed, another round of hardening occurred.
The massive clay bricks consumed a large amount of wood and time.
For this, Chen Zhou prepared a mountain of wood, burning from dawn on the 9th until dusk, stopping only when night fell, and he felt hungry, letting the embers extinguish on their own.
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At the end of the dry season, the island showed no signs of rain.
Even though the kiln was in the shade, feeding the fire for a day, the blazing heat left Chen Zhou drenched in sweat.
During that whole day, he drained an entire bucket of cool boiled water, lost count of bathroom trips, and cut a small channel from top to bottom by the platform's sandy edge.
By evening, after the last feed of wood, he sat exhausted on a low stool, flicking sweat from his brow, too weak to speak.
Even with continuous hydration, he couldn't keep up with the depletion, feeling that a few more days of such work would shorten his life.
Luckily, this kind of laborious task wasn't common; after five busy days, the kiln project finally concluded.
Future pottery work wouldn't require such toil but rather would focus on craftsmanship and creativity.
In terms of this, Chen Zhou was quite confident.
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On the night of the 9th, he drank a glass of lightly salted water to replenish his body's deficiencies, had a simple dinner, and fell asleep shortly after hitting the bed.
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As August arrived, the rainy season gradually approached, worrying Chen Zhou about rain damage to the kiln, so he began hauling timber to build a rain shelter over it.
However, before starting the shelter, he had another important task—the second batch of rice was ripe.
This batch, along with barley and wheat, had been planted on May 10, growing full through flowering and fruiting over more than three months.
The rice from the first batch had long been consumed by Chen Zhou.
For over a month, with bread depleted and no staples, he even retrieved the hard, brick-like, and foul-tasting black bread sticks, slicing, and boiling them to eat.
This batch of rice was much larger than the first one, and apart from the ones set aside as seeds, the remaining rice could last him for another month.
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On August 10, Chen Zhou harvested the second batch of ripe rice.
Just like with the first batch, he laid the rice heads on the platform to dry and set up the rain shelter framework.
That afternoon, clouds drifted over from the sea, blocking the stars and moon, faintly signaling the impending rainy season.
Chen Zhou quickly took in the drying rice at night and spread thick tarpaulin over the rain shelter to prevent night rain from soaking and mildew the rice or damaging the kiln.
August 11 was the date for the 21st reward; expecting rain on the night of the 10th or early on the 11th, Chen Zhou took out an unused sealskin raincoat for the next day's outing.
The sealskin raincoat had been hanging on his bedroom wall for a while, and he regularly oiled it for maintenance, extending its lifespan.
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That night, as he had expected, fine rain began to fall on the island.
The kiln bedroom had a floor laid down, and the oil lamp flickered softly.
At a small desk by the window, with a notebook spread open, Chen Zhou was busily jotting down reflections and experiences on pottery-making from this period.
Firing large pottery pieces was a crucial step in island life, a qualitative leap in improving living quality.
Once large pottery firing succeeded, chimneying the kitchen, tooling wood, liquid containers, and making soy sauce—all technical problems could be solved smoothly.
Besides, in the pottery creation process, Chen Zhou also found joy in creation.
Life on the island was so long; he planned to cultivate several hobbies to pass the time.
Painting was an option, fishing was another option, and making pottery and porcelain was yet another.
Also, after the charcoal kiln was built, he wanted to try blending glaze slurries and fire a few porcelain pieces.
He thought that even if his porcelain-making skills were far from professional artisans and the porcelain produced wasn't valuable, he could still take a few proud creations with him as souvenirs when he left the island.