The Process
The process of creating a pot begins with the veins of kaolin earth, a mineral millions of years old, harvested and locally manufactured into a workable clay body. The raw material is brought to the potter’s wheel, where respect and frugality is a key focus of the craft. While exploring new curves and forms, the emphasis on awareness and touch creates an intimate feedback loop between potter and clay. The forms that emerge are basic in their nature, each seeking balance between elegance and functionality.
Next, the pieces are glazed with mixtures of fluxes and oxides. Glazing is a science that requires many hours of research and testing; delicate glazes like celadon are mixed carefully, put on a ball mill and refined in a day-long process. The successful glazes are dipped and sprayed over the raw clay forms.
Most pieces are single fired. The glazed greenware is wadded and organized into a tall brick-walled wood-fired kiln. They are placed on the shelves with particular consideration of how the flame might weave its way around each object. The door is closed with brick, and the cups, bowls, and various forms are left to whatever dimension and composition fire may bring.
It’s always well before daybreak when the alchemy of firing commences. The fire is lit in the middle of the night and progresses through the day and into the following evening. Steady hands stoke the firebox every few minutes, raising the temperature of the kiln slowly and deliberately.
Throughout the firing, the reduction and oxidation of the atmosphere in the kiln is creating an intense, volatile workshop for the clay to harden, and effects to emerge. The smoke, ash, embers and minerals from the wood are interacting on a chemical level, creating unique organic patterns and flashes of color and texture.
In the loading process, small pyrometric cones are placed throughout the kiln to help gauge how melted the glazes may be. They’re checked periodically through viewing holes in the brick. Once the cones melt, at nearly 1300 degrees Celsius, the firing is complete. The fire-stokers leave their post to enjoy a beer, and the pieces are left to slowly cool and harden.
After a few days, the results are in. The kiln is opened by carefully dismantling the brick door to show what forms have remained intact, and what effects the fire brought forth.
Visually, each piece tells its own unique story of its experience in the firing. The glossy colors emerge from the glaze as it endures the intense heat of the kiln. The trails of deeper color show where ash and flame converged on the clay surface, in a phenomenon called flashing. The textured colors ranging from white to gold to green, mark were ash collected and melted into the body of the clay, oftentimes even forming crystals.
The signature of the flame is in both the durability of the ceramic and the beauty of its elemental expression. As each piece leaves the kiln and enters its new home, it carries with it the story of its both ancient and present-day magic.
Tap photo to see before and after firing.
