Women woodfirers panel
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I started studying ceramics in New Zealand,
at Auckland Studio Potters Centre. My
first teacher was Peter Lange, a very inspiring,
enthousiastic and creative ceramist. However
he worked primarily with gas kilns.
As I immediately became seduced by woodfired pots, and there was a phoenix
fast-fire kiln in the back yard of the centre a small group of us got together
and attempted to fire this kiln which had been abandoned for many years due
to its incapacities of reaching high temperature.
With the help and advice from an experienced
woodfirer, Terry Davies, who passed through Auckland
at that stage, we modified the kiln a little
and it fired well. Already at this stage it became
quite clear to me that woodfiring had become
the only sartisfying option for firing my work.
With an urge to get a deeper understanding
about different kilns and firing techniques,
I left New Zealand a year later and went to La
Borne, in central France, a small potters town
internationally known for its number of
various wood kilns.
This was en excellent place to learn about woodfiring,
as well as developing pottery craft skills. Partly
due to the excellent high firing clay in
the region and thus the long tradition of woodfired
stoneware, along with the influence from
many potters from various countries and
continents that has moved to La Borne in
the space of the last 30 years, adding to local
knowledge and ceramic culture .
During a period of 2 1/2 years I did two long
periods of apprenticeships in La Borne, one with
Eric Astoul who works with an anagama, and one
with Bottani-Dechaud who fires a Feller woodkiln.
Living in a village with 35 potters, and a great
number of them producing their work in woodfired
kilns, gave an unique opportunity to help
fire a vast number of different kilns, to fire
kilns frequently, and experience a variety
of different approaches to woodfiring.
In this period Landry Deese , an am. kilnbuilder,
and I built two anagama kilns, one outside
of La Borne and the other in Belo Horizonte,
Brazil. This experience, with following firings
in the newbuildt kilns, also helped me further
in the understanding of the life of the fire.
After my apprentice-period in La Borne
I worked for some time throwing pots in the south
of France and in Corsica, an then I went to St
Amand en Puisaye, only a one hour drive
east of La Borne. St Amand is village with many
similarities to La Borne, but with a traditionally
bigger scale and more industrialized production,
and known for it skilled throwers with special
competence for throwing hughe jars.
I was very interested in learning some of their skills.
St Amand did not have the strong influence of
the studio potters with university background
like La Borne, because traditional local production
never ceased completely and dominated the ceramics
scene there until the Early 1980.
I stayed in St Amand for another 3 1/2 years, only
interrupted by short working periods abroad.
I fired my work in various woodkilns, mostly
single-chambered anagama’s, from small
picknik-anagamas of a half m3 to large
traditional-style 15 cum single-chambered kilns.
For one period I taught throwing at the national
ceramics centre situated in the town of St Amand,
and at the end of the school year my students
fired the picknic-anagama at the school. Not
an easy kiln to fire for beginners, but a great
kiln to help get a first notion of what woodfiring
is and how a kiln reacts to stoking at different
temperatures, as this 1/2 cubm kiln reacted very
fast at different stoking patterns..
In St Amand I also got deeply involved in a
restoration project of what is probably the largest
stonware woodkiln in Europe, holding 100 cubm
of pots. The kiln had not been in use for nearly
50 years, and needed serious reparations. The
final step of the process was to fire the kiln.
Nearly 3 years of intense work; two of them full
time for my part, repairing the kiln and kilnshed+the
workshop to enable production, prepairing 150
cubm of wood and tons and tons of pots
ended with a succesful firing, preheating for
14 days, firing for 8 days and burning
120 cubm of wood. Firing a quite a few authentic
pots made in the early 50’s made the experience
even more magic.
Many fantastic voluonteer workers made a hughe contribution to the project
during this period, often in exhange for learning pottery craft skills
It was a fantastic experience to fire this kiln,
we were a group of 16 stokers separated in 4
teams, the most intense teamwork imaginable.
Besides being one of the best experiences of
my life, this also changed my perception of what
a ”big kiln” really means.
Ready to establish my own studio and build my
own kiln, I decided to make a kiln with several
possibilities. First of all a chamber with direct
flame, anagama-style, these kinds of effects are
those I appreciate most on naked clay.
I added a second, cross draught chamber well
suited to fire small items/tableware and
glazes.
I designed the kiln myself, but made sure to
talk to several more experienced kiln-builders along
the way. During the 2 months of building, I had periods
of very valuable help, mainly from French friends
and collegues. The kiln is approximately 6 cubm
.
The first firing of my new kiln I did
more or less on my own, it lasted for
72 hours and even though it fired quite well
I will not recommend it ! It’ hard to make
decitions and keep your mind alert when you get
too tired.
The last 10 hours I sidestoke the 2nd chamber,
and it really is necessary to be two stokers
Woodfiring potters are very sparse in my mountains,
but I am lucky enough to have good friends and
family that simply enjoy firing and a team is slowly
taking shape. I fire the kiln plus minus
4 times a year, each firing lasts between 100 and
120 hours and takes approximately 15 cubm of
wood.
So cutting, splitting, stacking and covering
the wood is actually quite a substantial part
of my job as a woodfirer, maybe 2 1/2 months
a year all up.
The firing for me is the essential, crucial
point in the process of creating my work.
I can not imagine using another firing technique,
the strong presence and caracter of woodfired
clay reinforces the expression I try ro
achieve.
The firing bring out and make more visible the
inherent beauty of the clay
It is a great challenge to work with an untamed
power of nature…..the risk is higher than
when using other firing techniques, it demands
careful attention and keeps me humble..
I love the cycles of physical work that demands
a woodkiln of a certain size., the labour. The
challenge each time I light the fire that in
the space of 4-5 days will grow to a roaring
inferno of white heat and transforme the soft
clay into stone-IF I give the fire what it demands
as it’s growing.
Women who woodfire- men who woodfire - people
who woodfire..
Facing the fire I do not believe gender makes
any difference or is important at all, Woman
or man, it does no longer excist, when
I fire I’m just a human being in front
of an amazing natural force wich seduces me, and
confuses and exhausts me if I let myself get
carried away.
Yet to be able to understand fire and work with
it I have to let the rational part of me loosen
up, I have to come along for the ride with both
heart and mind., trust my instincts...this balance
is delicate and extremely challenging as
days and nights pass and your mind gets blurred
by tiredness….In fact, sometimes it seems
as if the instincts partly take over the rational
thinking when you get very tired, this can be
dangerous but sometimes it can work perfectly.
The challenge of going beyond the stage of being
completely exhausted, exhausted by the heat from
the kiln that you suffer each time you stoke
or get close to the fire ,exhausted by the
nights without sleep, somehow it gets you into
a different level of conciousness, I’m
not saying a higher level, but a different one,
I think the woodfirer sometimes search some
of the same things as the one who sails
across the Atlantic in an open boat, or the solitary person
climbing Mount Everest. The challenge of h cone
14 it is also a call for mastery of natural forces,
and an attempt to bypass ones limits, mentally
and physically.
You might say that there is a major difference,
a woodfirer can always just stop firing when
he’s too tired, but it’s not quite
true, stopping before temperature is reached
is not an option, not mainly because of the pots
at stake, but because the fire hasn’t reached
it’s peak, the melting point of the clay
is not achieved, the fire is still the master
and demands to reach further.
There are some things I believe that tie
us woodfirers together , we do what we do because
of passion. We’ve all been captured by
this magical, labour intensive activity and are
comitted to woodfiring. There is some kind of
quiet understanding and sympathy amongst us.
Knock on the door at a woodfirers house at any
time during the night or the day,
Introduce yourself as a woodfiring potter, there’ll
always be room for the night and some wood to
stack the next morning.
I want my work to have gracious strenght
and energy, reflecting the transformation process
it has been through. I hope to achive a
quiet but strong presence like that of a giant
tree in the forest.
The symbiosis of clay and fire at high temperature is a crucial factor
for me to achieve these qualities.
Somehow, in our virtual, electronical and in
some ways sterile everyday life,
I feel that woodfired pots can be objects that
brings us a little closer to earth, to nature,
reminders of where we come from.
I hope to make pieces that people can keep in
their intimate surroundings and live close to..
Pots to touch, use and in wich humans
can find joy and calm,sources of reflection,
maybe consolation.
I have as much pleasure making -and I pay equal attention to-t
any everyday use mug or pitcher as I do to my sculptural work
Linda
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