GLAZES IN WOODFIRED KILN
By Elisa Helland-Hansen, Norway.
(download the msword file)

Why use glazes in a woodfired kiln?
Why not?

My basic attitude is that it does not matter what your starting point is whether it be an electric kiln, a gas kiln, a simple raku kiln or an anagama. Some of  the best contemporary ceramics I´ve seen are made in earthenware, fired oxidized in an electric kiln.
What  really matters is the individual artists ability to investigate and take advantage of the possibilities offered by the specific kind of kiln you have chosen to work with. How to cooperate with your own kiln, use it as a tool to develop an independent and individual statement in your work. What can my kiln offer that no other kiln can do?

To be honest I really don´t care all that much about woodfired ceramics.
In this audience it is probably like cursing in church.

Entering an exhibition of woodfired ceramics , I often go blind.
We have this saying in Norway: I can´t see the the woods because of all the trees.
The same thing happens when I am exposed to woodfired works: I cant see the work because of all the ash effects. There are just too many anagama fired pieces that just look more or less the same. You can hardly distinguish the fingerprint behind the work or the individual statement of the artist.
To me this is a problem.
This attitude might suggest that I am ignorant to the secrets of understanding the rich traditions and special aesthetic qualities of woodfired ceramics. If so, I need a door opener.

I am not against woodfiring as such. I am a dedicated practitioner myself and enjoy every bit of the process. It is a firing technique as good as any other firing method. But by choosing this firing technique we have not made it easy for ourselves, at least in the sense of being acknowledged and accepted by a larger art community.
There is a great danger that the seducing effects of flame marks, shellprints and flashing colors from ashdeposits and long firings can become a nonpersonal and anonymous stamp on your work. It becomes a distraction instead of  revealing the underlying intention and statement of your personal expression. To make an analogy: How many truly beautiful raku pieces have you seen in your life?
The bright turquoise, crackled surface may be so seductive, but so hard to use in an individual and convincing manner.

I am asked to say something about glazes in woodfired kilns today.
I have chosen to be very narrowminded and only talk about one single glaze.

My experience is that you can obtain a rich variety by selecting just a few glazes that respond to your firing technique and still come up with interesting and unexpected results after years of practice. Even if I have been teaching glaze chemistry for years in artschool, I only play around with three or four glazes in my own kiln. I experience that by concentrating on just a few glazes, I get a better understanding of the potential in every glaze.

When I first was introduced to a woodfired kiln in the mid seventies at the artschool where I studied in Bergen in Norway, I knew nothing about all the different kiln designs and firing methods that existed within this field. I just happened to take part in building a fastfired downdaft woodfired kiln at a colleague´s studio in western Norway. I enjoyed the laborwork involved with woodfiring. Shortly after graduation I decided to build the same type of kiln at my place
My kiln is a 30 cubic feet fastfired downdraft kiln fired in 7 to 8 hours to reach 1300 degrees Celsius, cone 10. It fires very evenly with less than one cone difference  throughout the chamber. No wadding is needed. I fire it approximately 8-10 times a year and still fire the same old kiln after 25 years, though it is screaming for some major repairs these days.
It´s a perfect kiln for those who are attracted to short term pyromania.
I find it overwhelming, inspiring but also a bit frightening  to be exposed to all these enormous noborigamas and beautiful anagamas we have seen pictures of  the last few days. Somehow I can´t see that these huge constructions have anything to do with me or are relevant to my working conditions, especially when I turn older.
I believe it must be comforting to somebody in this audience to know that it actually IS possible to deal with a smaller woodfired kiln, handle the wood and the firing all on your own, and still come up with interesting results. But it is different from an anagama or a trainkiln.
My kiln is lit at eight o´clock in the morning, reach cone 10 at 4 pm and I go home and take a shower at 5. I learned a new expression last night: Crash cooling. That must be the case with me. The temperature drops about 300 degrees Celsius the first hour. I can unload the kiln at noon the next morning.

I learned quite soon that I had to find my own way in dealing with this fastfired kiln. 
Just had to get to know her really well.The firing is too short to give any substantial ash effects or bring out the subtleties in a melted claysurface. Neither did traditional highfired reduction glazes turn out especially interesting under my firing conditions.
I learned by trial and errors. Mostly by errors.
It turned out that using something in between a glaze and a clay seemed to give the most interesting surface results. I think this makes sense. A short woodfiring needs some melting aid on the surfaces to bring out rich and varied textures.
So I started to experiment with one particular slipglaze I got from John Maltby in 1978.

We call it Maltby or 1-2-3. One part felspar. Two parts whiting. Three parts kaolin.
Over the last 25 years I have not gone tired with this glaze. It just seems to have endless possibilities depending on thickness, claybody, wood quality, kiln atmosphere, position in the kiln and cooling curve.
I´ve occasionally tried the same glaze recipe in many other kilns: anagamas, trainkilns and gasfiring with no successful results. This confirms my belief that you can start out with any kiln. It´s just a question of  becoming real close friends with your own kiln and understand the potensials this special friend offers you.