Preamble: Do you remember me telling you about Ryoko’s charcoal kiln? Anyhow, she built it herself, recently fired for the first time and here are the results.
I know I gush about my amazing wife all the time / she continually truly amazes me with her projects both “professional and personal“. … So, this is me saying: here is her new incredible project, charcoal.
Project started with clearing out a significant part of bamboo forest, like 20 m tall bamboo trees, then excavating part of a small hillside, followed by installing an oil drum in which she cut holes for loading and chimneys, then surrounding the drum with bricks, adding the two-stage chimney, building a roof (this part I helped a tiny bit #GoodBoy) and sealing it just before the rains came.
Then, loaded up with a variety of wood – mix of various hardwoods and bamboo – for her first firing. Lit a fire at a little entrance at the front, eventually catches inside and “roasts“ all the wood without burning.
After eight hours, cut off the oxygen (by then our whole compound smelled like barbecue), then after two or three days, opened it up & pulled all the charcoal out (hey, I helped with this part too!).
She also collected the magic charcoal water for some kind of still unknown to me medicinal use.
The part I love the most is all the various skills she used for one single project to gracefully produce what seems like a very simple product. From forestry to machinery to metal cutting to alchemy and so many points in between (and usually a cute hat).
And she goes about all these complicated projects with a cheerful smile + a combination of confidence and naivety / I will wake up be drinking coffee and look out the window and she’s rented a power shovel for the day or a running hydraulic wood splitter.
By the way, she also designs traditional Japanese gardens with a bit of a modern functional twist as well as doing tree trimming, plant installations, rock work… all of this is aside from her jazz singing, occasional piano live streams.
Her company is called Kinome.
Question: “can you use this charcoal for drawing”
The initial answer from the maker is “I don’t know, i think its different/ specific wood & process but let’s try”
(I think the artists charcoal is ground up finally after roasting and then pressed back together, maybe with a binding agent)
