Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Happenstance


This is a wood fired piece fresh out of the kiln. Wood firing is known as a high firing process the temperature gets up to cone 10. The kiln needs round the clock stoking of wood to reach the final temperature. The firing goes on for 3-5 days with a cooling down period of 5 days. This piece is made of white stoneware that was put in the kiln naked, no glaze. I'm pretty stoked about this piece. It measures about 6 inches high. It's retro seventies looking with the earthy colors and groovy design. The even cooler thing is, I didn't have much to do with it-it's all in the firing.

For my own education, I looked up artists working with wood firing and discovered John Benn and Colleen Gallagher. Of course, they're already discovered, but it's my first time with them. I was curious to see what others results are for wood firing.




According to their webpage, " John and Colleen fire in two wood burning kilns: a salt kiln with a Bourry-style firebox and a 25 foot long Noborigama/train kiln. John and Colleen have been professional studio potters for 27 years. John (MFA, Art Institute of Chicago) has been a Studio Potter in Washington since 1979. Colleen studied ceramics with Ka Kwong Hui at Rutgers University and studio art in the MFA Program at Pratt Institute in New York (MFA, University of Puget Sound). Their work has won awards in the United States and internationally and can be seen in private collections, museums and public art projects. Their commitment to woodfiring is obsessive."

Maybe when I'm in Seattle, I'll have to look them up. They also show work at the Island Gallery on Bainbridge Island, WA.
And that's the end of our lesson for today ;-).

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