Marilyn Levine Interview
Conducted by Glenn Adamson in Oakland, California, 2002.

MS. LEVINE: Oh, yeah, kiln fire is a major thing. I mean, it would take -- to load a jacket in the kiln would be like a three- or four-day episode just loading. First of all, you've got to clean the kiln out from everybody else. So you clean all the grog out of the burners and all sorts of things. And then I’d have to build a structure out in front of the kiln -- this was a front-loading kiln, a big gas kiln -- build a big structure that would be at exactly the level of the kiln shelf. And so I’d have to build a very solid structure inside the kiln to hold up the shelves so that -- and I would have my jacket on a -- it would be on a slab of clay --

MR. ADAMSON: Flat?

MS. LEVINE: Flat slab of -- the layers from the bottom up would be like a board, you know, and then there’d be sand, and then there’d be a slab of clay, and then there’d be sand, and then there’d be lots and lots of little posts with alumina on top of them, and then the jacket on top of all those little posts, and toothpicks holding everything together that will burn up -- wooden toothpicks.

MR. ADAMSON: Why the toothpicks?

MS. LEVINE: Just to hold everything firm so they wouldn’t fall over.

MR. ADAMSON: While they’re firing.

MS. LEVINE: Well, they’re all moving around when I’m putting it in the kiln and everything. And then I have -- so you’ve got all this weight of this jacket and this slab of clay --

MR. ADAMSON: The posts are for circulation of the heat around the bottom?

MS. LEVINE: No, the posts are to hold it up because there is no flat side --

MR. ADAMSON: Oh, I see.

MS. LEVINE: -- for the hanging jacket. And -- or for anything, for a golf bag, and firing it on its side so it’s rounded, you know, and I’ve got all these -- and so, loading the kiln I have to build this very sturdy structure inside the kiln, and the kiln shelves have to be exactly level, and I have to build a sturdy structure outside the kiln, lay the board on -- and then slide the slab, with the jacket on top of it, into the kiln on top of some more sand, and without knocking over all the shelves that are in the kiln. So it has -- that’s why it has to be so sturdy. I slide this whole thing in there and barely -- there’s barely room on either side for you to get your fingers around. And, you know, to get all that done perfectly, I mean, it takes two people a few days, you know, to do it all right -- a couple -- you know, at least three days.
play audio clip