The Old Church Pottery Show at Demarest, NJ

(Gwelwch isod am y Gymraeg/ See below for Welsh)

December brought with it two new states to add to my visited list as we made the 15 hour drive from Illinois to New Jersey via Pennsylvania, heading out to the east coast for the second time this year. This trip, over the first weekend of December, was for the 49th annual pottery show and sale at the Art School at Old Church, Demarest, NJ (TASOC), where Simon had been invited to exhibit. 

The Old Church Pottery Show originated in 1975 as a brainchild of the iconic potter Karen Karnes and her friend Mikhail Zakin, founder of TASOC. Karen curated the show in this former Baptist Church for more than 40 years before her death in 2019 at the age of 90, and nowadays this nationally renowned event draws close to 1000 pottery enthusiasts annually. It has also set the example for many alternative pottery events since including the St. Croix Valley Pottery Tour in Minnesota. Mark Shapiro, one of this year’s exhibitors gave a presentation on the life and work of Karen Karnes for the 2012 American Craft Council Baltimore Show which you can watch through this link: Mark Shapiro: The Ceramic Art of Karen Karnes - YouTube. He also edited ‘A Chosen Path, The Ceramic Art of Karen Karnes’ which offers a comprehensive look at her life and work. 

Malcolm Mobutu Smith

Lisa Orr

This year’s show featured 26 prominent ceramic artists from across the US including wood-firing legend and poet Jack Troy - author of ‘Wood-fired Stoneware and Porcelain’, Lindsay Oesterritter - author or ‘Mastering Kilns and Firings’, Chris Gustin, anagama firing potter from Dartmouth, Massachusetts, and Ben Owen III - a multi-generational potter from Seagrove North Carolina. For the full list of this year’s demonstrators click here: 2023 Potters — 49th Annual Pottery Show & Sale (oldchurchpotteryshow.org) Interestingly for me, it was the first sale I’ve been to where the artists didn’t deal with the sales. Instead the Arts School had a series of volunteer ‘runners’ who took your name and chosen pottery to keep in a hold until you were ready to check out, whereby the pots were taken to a designated packing and paying area away from the exhibitors. I like how this model gives potters the opportunity to have deep conversations with visitors about their work without the need to be available for managing sales as well.

Among my many highlights were Malcolm Mobutu Smith’s cloud cups: large pipe-like vessels that give the impression they are smoking themselves, billowing organic abstractions that intersect graffiti art, cubism and Jazz age Art Deco. They also have the delicious synesthetic quality of scooped ice cream. As usual, Lisa Orr’s whimsical pots were a delight to see and caress. My favourite was this cake stand which resembles an ambitious, elaborate, prize winning British Bake Off creation. I love the sense of joy with which Lisa reimagines historical pottery such as 19th century Palissy-ware with a Disney-esque vibrancy. 

Not all the pots were enjoyed for their ability to remind me of food though. I found Mattew Metz’s vessels with their lino-cut quality carved birds, faces and plants profoundly charming. His technique of salt glazing grolleg porcelain with a blue terra sigillata leaves the white carved areas with the icy sparkle of frosty winter mornings. Work by Sang Joon Park, another NY based artist really resonated with me too. He utilises traditional Korean techniques of inhwamun stamping and gwiyal slip painting to add delicate texture and expressive colour to his vessels, often in red, white and black. 

Our return journey was broken up with the pleasure of an overnight stay at Jack Troy and Carolanne Currier’s place in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, and a tour of their studio and kiln yard. While I was on residency at Guldagergaard in Denmark in the autumn of 2022 I found an envelope containing  pieces of paper on which were written ‘20 questions by Jack Troy’. These questions act as prompts to thinking about our own relationship with wood-firing, pottery and art in general, and you can find a version of them here on his website: QUESTIONS FOR ARTISTS (jacktroy.net) In the new year I want to spend some time pondering these questions and sharing my answers on this blog.

Jack Troy and Carolanne Currier’s Kiln Shed, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania

Looking to New York City across the Hudson River from New Jersey

Sioe Grochenwaith yr Hen Eglwys yn Demarest, NJ

Daeth Rhagfyr â dwy dalaith newydd i fi ychwanegu at fy rhestr o daleithiau wedi ymweld, wrth inni wneud y daith 15 awr mewn car o Illinois i New Jersey drwy Pennsylvania, allan i’r arfordir dwyreiniol am yr eildro eleni. Roedd y daith yma, dros benwythnos cyntaf Rhagfyr, ar gyfer y 49fed sioe ac arwerthiant crochenwaith blynyddol yn Ysgol Gelf yr hen Eglwys, Demarest, NJ (TASOC), lle gwahoddwyd Simon i arddangos.

Dechreuodd Sioe Grochenwaith yr Hen Eglwys ym 1975 fel syniad gan y crochenydd eiconig Karen Karnes a’i ffrind Mikhail Zakin, sylfaenydd TASOC. Curadurodd Karen y sioe yn yr hen Eglwys Fedyddiedig yma am fwy na 40 mlynedd cyn ei marwolaeth yn 2019 yn 90 oed, a heddiw mae’r digwyddiad enwog yma yn denu bron i 1000 o ymwelwyr bob blwyddyn. Mae hefyd wedi gosod yr esiampl ar gyfer llawer o ddigwyddiadau crochenwaith amgen ers hynny gan gynnwys Taith Crochenwaith Dyffryn St. Croix yn Minnesota. Rhoddodd Mark Shapiro, un o arddangoswyr eleni, gyflwyniad ar fywyd a gwaith Karen Karnes ar gyfer Sioe Cyngor Crefftau America Baltimore yn 2012 (gallwch ei wylio trwy’r linc yma: Mark Shapiro: The Ceramic Art of Karen Karnes - YouTube.) Golygodd hefyd ‘A Chosen Path, The Ceramic Art of Karen Karnes’ sy’n cynnig golwg gynhwysfawr ar ei bywyd a’i gwaith.

Simon Levin

Matthew Metz

Roedd sioe eleni’n cynnwys 26 o artistiaid serameg o bob rhan o’r Unol Daleithiau gan gynnwys y bardd ac arwr tanio hefo pren Jack Troy – awdur ‘Wood-fired Stoneware and Porcelain’, Lindsay Oesterritter – awdures ‘Mastering Kilns and Firings’, Chris Gustin, crochenydd sy’n tanio kiln anagama yn Dartmouth, Massachusetts, a Ben Owen III - crochenydd aml-genhedlaeth o Seagrove North Carolina. Am y rhestr lawn o arddangoswyr eleni cliciwch yma: Crochenwyr 2023 - 49ain Sioe a Gwerthiant Crochenwaith Blynyddol (oldchurchpotteryshow.org) Yn ddiddorol i mi, hwn oedd yr arwerthiant cyntaf i mi fod iddo lle doedd yr artistiaid ddim yn delio hefo gwerthiant y gwaith. Yn lle hynny, roedd gan Ysgol y Celfyddydau gyfres o ‘redwyr’ gwirfoddol a oedd yn cymryd eich enw a’ch dewis o grochenwaith i’w gadw nes eich bod yn barod i adael, pan fyddai’r potiau’n cael eu cludo i fan pacio a thalu dynodedig i ffwrdd oddi wrth yr arddangoswyr. Dwi’n hoffi sut mae'r model yma yn rhoi cyfle i grochenwyr gael sgyrsiau dwfn gydag ymwelwyr am eu gwaith heb fod angen iddynt fod ar gael ar gyfer rheoli gwerthiant hefyd.


Ymhlith fy uchafbwyntiau niferus oedd cwpanau cwmwl Malcolm Mobutu Smith: llestri mawr tebyg i bibellau sy’n rhoi’r argraff eu bod yn ysmygu eu hunain, siapiau organig wedi chwyddo sy’n croestorri celf graffiti, ciwbiaeth ac Art Deco o’r oes Jazz. Mae ganddyn nhw hefyd yr ansawdd synesthetig blasus o hufen ia. Yn ôl yr arfer, roedd potiau gwallgof Lisa Orr yn bleser i’w gweld a’u cyffwrdd. Fy ffefryn oedd y llestr gacennau yma sy'n atgoffa fi o rhai o’r creadigaethau uchelgeisiol, cywrain, sydd yn ennill gwobrau ar y British Bake Off. Dwi wrth fy modd hefo’r ymdeimlad o lawenydd mewn gwaith Lisa wrth iddi ail-ddychmygu traddodiadau crochenwaith hanesyddol fel llestri Palissy o'r 19eg ganrif gyda’r un bywiogrwydd lliwgar a ffilm Disney. 


Ond ni wnes i fwynhau'r potiau i gyd am eu gallu i fy atgoffa o fwyd. Roedd llestri Matthew Metz gyda’u hadar, planhigion ac wynebau cerfiedig yn hynod o swynol. Mae ei dechneg o orchuddio porslen hefo terra sigillata glas, wedyn ychwanegu halen i’r tanio yn gadael ardaloedd cerfiedig gwyn gyda disgleirdeb boreau gaeafol rhewllyd. Roedd gwaith Sang Joon Park, artist arall o NY yn atseinio gyda fi hefyd. Mae'n defnyddio technegau traddodiadol Coreaidd o stampio inhwamun a phaentio slip gwiyal i ychwanegu gweadau cain a lliw mynegiannol i'w lestri, yn aml mewn coch, gwyn a du.


Torrwyd i fyny ein taith adref hefo’r pleser o aros dros nos yn lle Jack Troy a Carolanne Currier yn Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, a thaith o amgylch eu stiwdio a’u iard odynau. Tra o’n i ar breswyliad yn Guldagergaard yn Nenmarc yn hydref 2022, des o hyd i amlen yn cynnwys darnau o bapur hefo ‘20 cwestiwn gan Jack Troy’ arnyn nhw. Mae'r cwestiynau yma yn ysgogiadau i feddwl am ein perthynas hefo thanio crochenwaith hefo pren, a chelf yn gyffredinol, a gallwch ddod o hyd i fersiwn ohonynt yma ar ei wefan: CWESTIYNAU I ARTISTIAID (jacktroy.net) Yn y flwyddyn newydd dwi isho treulio amser yn ystyried rhai o’r cwestiynau yma a rhannu fy atebion yma ar y blog. 

Apprenticing

( Scroll down for Welsh/Cymraeg)

It’s been seven months since I first moved to the US and three already I realise, since I last wrote. September is here and those corn fields that haven’t been harvested yet stand brown and limp. Windswept, the plants hunch over in their rows like dejected queues at a bus stop (a metaphor I realise doesn't really work in the US where cars are a way of life). The soy bushes are ripening yellow but most trees are still clinging on to their leaves, and outside the dining room window the branches of the pear tree are vertical with fruit. 

This summer we were in the thick of it, exhibiting with the Northern Illinois Pottery tour at the beginning of June, a firing of the anagama up in Wisconsin in mid-July, and last month Simon’s cohorts students visited for a week to fire the train kiln here in Pawnee. As I write, Simon is over on the rugged coast of northern California, running a workshop at Mendocino Arts Centre. I decided to stay put for the time being to continue working on the pitchers and teacups/saucers that have been holding my attention. 

In August I compiled the first mid-term report for my visa sponsor International Arts and Artists. This detailed what my day to day life as an apprentice has been like these past months, and to give you a taste of how we roll, I thought I’d do a round-up here. 18 hours of the week is spent supporting Simon with a variety of duties while the rest of the time is my own. Tasks are different from day to day but below are some of the recurring jobs.

As wood-firing potters, wood sourcing, processing and stacking takes up a chunk of time. I regularly run to a local pallet making factory where they will dump a skip-full (dumpster-full) of pine lumber offcuts into the bed of the pickup truck. These we offload either as heating fuel into the studio or into the kiln shed for the early stages of the firings. Chainsaw maintenance and sharpening is another task in preparation for the days when we do some serious wood processing - rolling out the Champion 27-Ton log splitter. We wait until there are at least three of us though for these often four hour wood slicing marathons. Since I’ve been here, storms have taken down three trees in the garden, so cutting up and clearing these has been the work of some weeks. Scraps of bark and debris are disposed of in the burn barrel.

While I don’t make Simon’s work, I do pack the bisque kiln (an L&L Kilns 10.2 cubic feet Model e28T-3) and sand his bisque fired pots. Preparing for the firings involves replenishing glazes, mixing up wadding and kiln wash, making cone packs, inventory control, sieving ash to use as a brick sealant and cleaning the kiln. I oversee the reclaiming of clay which we do in the studio with the help of four large dryer felt slings. Post-firing, we share the responsibility of sanding each pot carefully with a fine-grade sandpaper, then cleaning them with mineral oil. 

A portion of my time is spent photographing pots and using an app called PhotoRoom to edit them for updating Simon’s website and 1potaday instagram page. If sold, I pack them up and ship them out. Occasionally my duties involve other trips to town - replenishing the studio drinking water dispenser, picking up chainsaw gas, taking the truck for an oil change or filling up with petrol. Sometimes too we have exhibitions, such as the showcase at the NCECA Artstream Nomadic in spring and a table at the Northern Illinois Pottery tour. My roles then include pricing up work and putting together inventories. 

One of the longest projects I worked on until recently was the Forrest Lesch-Middleton  ceramics tiles commission. Over the first six months of my time here we prepped, fired, sanded and sealed over 900 3”x6” tiles. These were sent to us, pre-bisqued by FLM Ceramics, Forrest’s custom tile making studio in California, and fired in three separate firings. Pots placed on wadding on top of them resulted in some wildly psychedelic flashing marks. Simon aptly gives this collaborative series the name ‘Pareidolia’ after the ‘tendency for incorrect perception of an object, pattern or meaning, such as seeing shapes in clouds’. You can find more information here: Diamond Pareidolia Woodfired Tile by Simon Levin for FLM Ceramics — FLM Ceramics and Tile

My newest project is figuring out how to design a train kiln for a client using Google Sketchup, an introduction to a whole new skill set for me. With our next firing in October and another firing with cohorts in November, it’s another busy few months ahead. If you’re unfamiliar with Simon’s Clay Cohorts, I urge you to check out this innovative project. Devised in the middle of the Covid pandemic, this year-long mentorship programme caters to artists who want to learn to make better work but are looking for an alternative option to grad-school or an apprenticeship. You can learn more at Cohorts.Art


CYMRAEG

Mae saith mis wedi mynd heibio ers i mi symud i'r Unol Daleithiau am y tro cyntaf, a thri, dwi'n sylweddoli, ers i mi ysgrifennu diwethaf. Mae mis Medi yma ac mae’r ambell gae ŷd sydd heb eu cynaeafu eto yn frown ac yn llipa. Mae'r planhigion yn plygu drosodd yn eu rhesi fel ciwiau digalon wrth arosfan bws (trosiad dwi'n sylweddoli sydd ddim rili’n gweithio yn yr Unol Daleithiau lle mae pawb hefo car). Mae'r llwyni soi wedi aeddfedu'n felyn ond mae'r rhan fwyaf o goed yn dal i lynu wrth eu dail, a thu allan i ffenest y ‘stafell fwyta mae canghennau'r goeden gellyg yn fertigol gyda ffrwythau.

Roedd yr haf yma’n un brysur gyda Simon yn arddangos gyda’r ‘Northern Illinois Pottery Tour’ ar ddechrau Mehefin, tanio’r anagama i fyny yn Wisconsin ganol mis Gorffennaf, a’r mis diwethaf ymwelodd myfyrwyr ‘cohorts’ Simon am wythnos i danio’r odyn trên yma yn Pawnee. Wrth i mi ysgrifennu, mae Simon draw ar arfordir garw gogledd California, yn cynnal gweithdy yng Nghanolfan Celfyddydau Mendocino. Penderfynais aros yma am y tro i barhau i weithio ar y piserau a'r cwpanau te/soseri sydd wedi bod yn dal fy sylw.

Ym mis Awst lluniais yr adroddiad canol tymor cyntaf ar gyfer fy noddwr fisa ‘International Arts and Artists’. Roedd hwn yn manylu ar sut beth yw fy mywyd o ddydd i ddydd fel prentis, ac i roi blas i chi o sut mae fy mhrofiad hyd yn hyn, dwi am grynhoi yma. Dwi’n gwario 18 awr yr wythnos yn cefnogi Simon gydag amrywiaeth o ddyletswyddau ac yn cael gweddill yr amser i fi fy hun. Mae’r tasgau'n wahanol o ddydd i ddydd ond isod mae rhai o'r swyddi sy'n codi dro ar ôl tro.

Fel crochenwyr tanio hefo pren, mae dod o hyd i, prosesu a phentyrru pren yn cymryd cryn dipyn o amser. Dwi’n gyrru yn rheolaidd i ffatri paledi lleol lle byddant yn taflu llond sgip o doriadau coed pinwydd i wely'r tryc. Rydyn ni'n dadlwytho'r rhain naill ai fel tanwydd gwresogi i'r stiwdio neu i'r sied kiln ar gyfer camau cynnar y tanio. Mae cynnal a chadw a minio’r llif gadwyn yn dasg arall wrth baratoi ar gyfer y dyddiau pan fyddwn yn gwneud rhywfaint o waith prosesu pren difrifol - hefo help llaw'r holltwr boncyff Champion 27-Ton. Dan ni’n aros nes bod o leiaf dri ohonom ar gyfer y marathonau torri coed hyn sy'n aml yn para pedair awr. Ers i mi fod yma, mae stormydd wedi cwympo tair coeden yn yr ardd, felly mae torri a chlirio’r rhain wedi bod yn waith rhai wythnosau. Mae sbarion o risgl a malurion yn cael eu gwaredu yn y gasgen llosgi.

Er nad ydw i'n gwneud gwaith Simon, dwi’n pacio'r odyn bisg (Model L&L Kilns 10.2 troedfedd giwbig e28T-3) ac yn tywodio ei botiau tanio bisg. Mae paratoi ar gyfer tanio yn cynnwys ailgyflenwi gwydreddau, cymysgu ‘wadding’ a golchiad odyn, gwneud pecynnau côn, rhidyllu lludw i'w ddefnyddio fel seliwr brics a glanhau'r odyn. Dwi’n goruchwylio'r gwaith o ailgylchu clai gyda chymorth pedwar sling ffelt sychwr mawr. Ar ôl tanio, rydym yn rhannu'r cyfrifoldeb o dywodi pob pot yn ofalus gyda phapur tywod gradd fân, ac yna eu glanhau ag olew mwynau.

Mae cyfran o fy amser yn cael ei dreulio yn tynnu lluniau o botiau ac yn defnyddio ap o'r enw PhotoRoom i'w golygu ar gyfer diweddaru gwefan Simon a thudalen instagram 1potaday. Os ydyn nhw’n gwerthu, dwi’n eu cludo allan. Bob hyn a hyn mae fy nyletswyddau'n cynnwys teithiau eraill i'r dref - ailgyflenwi dosbarthwr dŵr yfed y stiwdio, prynu tanwydd i’r llif gadwyn, mynd â'r tryc i newid olew neu lenwi â phetrol. Weithiau hefyd mae gennym ni arddangosfeydd, fel yr arddangosfa yn Artstream Nomadic NCECA yn y gwanwyn a bwrdd yn yr ‘Northern Illinois Pottery Tour’. Mae fy rolau wedyn yn cynnwys prisio gwaith i fyny a rhoi rhestrau eiddo at ei gilydd.

Un o'r prosiectau hiraf oedden ni’n yn gweithio arno tan yn ddiweddar oedd comisiwn teils serameg Forrest Lesch-Middleton. Dros chwe mis cyntaf fy amser yma wnaethom baratoi, tanio, sandio a selio dros 900 o deils 3”x6”. Anfonwyd y rhain atom, wedi’u rhag-fisgio gan FLM Ceramics, stiwdio gwneud teils Forrest yng Nghaliffornia, a’u tanio mewn tri thaniad ar wahân. Cafodd potiau eu gosod ar ben y teils wrth danio sydd wedi arwain at farciau fflachio seicedelig gwyllt. Mae Simon yn briodol wedi rhoi’r enw ‘Pareidolia’ i’r gyfres yma ar ôl ‘y tueddiad i gael canfyddiad anghywir o wrthrych, patrwm neu ystyr, fel gweld siapiau mewn cymylau’. Gallwch ddod o hyd i ragor o wybodaeth yma: Diamond Pareidolia Woodfired Tile by Simon Levin for FLM Ceramics — FLM Ceramics and Tile

Fy mhrosiect diweddaraf yw darganfod sut i ddylunio odyn drên ar gyfer cleient gan ddefnyddio Google Sketchup, cyflwyniad i set sgiliau hollol newydd i mi. Gyda’n tanio nesaf ym mis Hydref ac un arall gyda grŵp ‘cohorts’ Simon ym mis Tachwedd, mae ychydig fisoedd prysur eto i ddod. Os ydych chi’n anghyfarwydd â’r ‘Clay Cohorts’, dwi’n annog chi i edrych ar y prosiect arloesol yma. Wedi’i dyfeisio yng nghanol pandemig Cofid, mae hwn yn rhaglen fentora blwyddyn o hyd sy’n darparu ar gyfer artistiaid sydd eisiau dysgu gwneud gwaith gwell ond sy’n chwilio am opsiwn arall yn lle ysgol raddedig neu brentisiaeth. Gallwch ddysgu mwy yma: Cohorts.Art

May Firing

As I run the gamut of seasons here in Illinois, the dogwoods, magnolias and eastern redbuds in the garden have shaken off the last of their blossoms. We’ve had some unexpected visitors to the studio, a starling that fell down the wood stove chimney and startled me one morning, as well as a couple of snakes coming out of their winter hiding. I’ve been having great fun using the Merlin Bird ID app to identify birds by their song. The bright red Cardinals and American Robins I see almost daily, but we’ve had a fair amount of migrating visitors, including a pair of brown headed cowbirds and an indigo bunting. 

We had a couple of migrating potters visit too at the beginning of the month. Eva Funderburgh arrived in from Seattle, Washington following in the footsteps of a drove of adorable tiny mythical beasts she sent in the post. And all the way from Taiwan, where they are in the process of building an astonishing ceramics centre, Simon’s ex apprentice Meng-Che and his wife Apple. It was a delight to fire with this team, they were warm and generous company, as well as excellent chefs!

Seasons changing - a royal visitor

Blinded Sphinx Moth

A dramatic firing in various ways, the day before we packed the kiln, as I was glazing work, I experienced my first tornado warning since living in Illinois. We sheltered in the basement for half an hour, with no sign of a twister. However, later in the evening a thunderstorm with torrential rain began flooding the studio and we had to build up barricades with gravel and sandbags to stop the deluge. The rain let up though for a drier first day of packing on May 8th.

Firing began as usual with the damper at 4” (Usually 3 or 4), stoking into the clean out at the back of the main bourry box. With her birthday closest to the firing, Eva had the privilege of lighting the kiln, as per tradition with Simon’s firings, using only one match. I’ve never found out what happens if someone is unsuccessful in lighting the kiln with one match, presumably they get sacrificed to the kiln gods instead.

At first we climbed gradually with the goal of 75F an hour to 500F, which took around six hours. Converting to celsius can be a little confusing at times but in UK terms this is about 42C/hour. After 500F/260C the climb rate sped up to 100F/55C. The pine lumber we get as offcuts from a local pallet factory can be awkwardly ‘goofy and confetti-esque’ (to steal the eloquent words of Lars Voltz), so as the firebox heated up, I was throwing handfuls into the main firebox stoke hole as well. As per last firing (which you can read about in more detail here), we transitioned fully over to the main stoke hole once the pyrometer reached 1000F/538C. 

Action shot - stoking the firebox with Eva!

I wasn’t on shift for this transitional phase last time, so it was good to have the opportunity to navigate the switch this time around. During this change over I opened the damper and primary air to encourage the air to be drawn in to burn the wood downwards. The full transition to main stokes that fill the firebox can take a few hours as the kiln adjusts. Simon showed me how it helped to stoke 2x4 pieces directly into an open hole of the secondary air to increase the coal bed at this stage. 

After 2000F/1100C the rate of climb slows a lot and it is equally a case of reading the pyrometer and watching the cones and flames to make adjustments. This, my second firing of the train kiln, was a tricky one. Last firing took 44 hours before we started the downfire. This time, at hour 49 with almost a third of the cone packs still no further than ^6, Simon decided to change tact. A combination of my too tight packing of the back stack, a large amount of tiles in the kiln, and a lack of large pieces overall meant that the flame was not moving through efficiently. Simon made the decision to clear the firebox stoke hole completely, close the primary air and fire the train like an anagama. This was a totally novel approach to me but worked wonders. Stoking small pieces of pine, the pyrometer temperature was brought back up, knocking down some cone 9s at the back. 

Firing with Simon I’m learning some interesting tricks for controlling kilns. During the firing of the anagama in Syracuse last month, the front was getting much hotter than the back at the later stages. We closed the primary and secondary air and ran the kiln off one log in the front at a time, waiting for the flame from that stoke to reach the back pots, before adding just one more log. That way, when the temperature at the back dropped too low we began side-stoking, without the temperature at the front ever going up. It felt counterintuitive to how I expected to fire an anagama but worked to obtain an even heat distribution. 

This firing no.18 of the train kiln resulted in some wonderful effects despite the uphill battle, a very ashy firing in all. As always it was sad to say goodbye to the firing team. We parted with full hearts, full bellies and suitability traumatized by Eurovision.

祝你成功 

Comparing the last two firings - Temperature in F on Y axis

NCECA Cincinnati

(Gwelwch am y Gymraeg isod - See for Welsh below)

English/Saesneg

Well March hurried past like the white rabbit in Alice in Wonderland. I’ve recently returned with Simon from Syracuse, New York state but for now I want to rewind a few weeks previous to that. Back in mid-April, with generous support from the Arts Council of Wales ‘Wales Arts International’ grant for international opportunities, I attended my first NCECA (National Council on education for the Ceramic Arts) in Cincinnati. 

NCECA was founded in 1966 and is a non-profit organisation that fosters global education and appreciation for the ceramic arts. The annual conference takes place in a different US city each year and features dozens of presentations, demonstrations and exhibitions. This year’s event ‘Current’ was held in Cincinnati, Ohio. Apparently Charles Dickens, once said of this city ‘I have not often seen a place that commends itself so favourably and pleasantly to a stranger at the first glance as this does.’ The population has increased seven-fold since those days but if the mayor of the city’s puns at the opening ceremony are anything to judge the city by, I am won over. In visiting this far off favourable land I also discovered a new word: Ohio is the ‘buckeye state’, buckeyes being what we call in the UK ‘conkers’ of the horse chestnut tree. 

It was an intense week of meeting many new and old friends. The corporate environment of the Duke Energy convention centre felt a bit incongruous with the ceramics world, considering most people there felt at home in dusty workshops. It was great though to see how ‘Current’ had percolated through the city, with exhibitions in multiple venues, including ‘guerilla’ exhibitions, advertised through word of mouth or instagram, such as the ‘Past Curfew Pop-up show at Somerset bar. 

On the Monday I got to be on hand with the Artstream Nomadic set up. This gallery on wheels, a restored 1967 Airstream trailer gallery representing established and emerging contemporary ceramic artists, has been touring the country with pop up exhibitions since 2001. They dropped anchor in the main expo hall of the convention centre and while putting out the pots, I got to handle a whole lot of work by artists on the bill this spring including Simon (many pots from February's firing), Julia Galloway, Josh Deweese and Tara Wilson.

NCECA Expo hall

Artstream - unwrapping Simon’s pots

My programme was full and diverse, with talk topics ranging from ‘how to navigate growing old while working with clay’ to ‘clay commoning’ about how we can promote an openness and sharing of resources in the ceramics community. I was delighted that I got to hear one of my most recently discovered clay heroes Jack Troy recite his poetry and was mightily impressed with the candidness and eloquence of this year’s emerging artists. Joshua Beckett’s presentation about ‘Trauma informed throwing’ was illuminating. Having taught throwing classes back home in Dolgellau, I had never seriously considered how the level of experienced helplessness when beginning to learn to throw could perpetuate trauma in some people. Beckett suggested tools for restoring power and control to the learner during lessons, in order to think of the teacher as a healer and make full use of clay’s ability to mediate disconnection from the body. 

Fire without Smoke
One of my highlights was seeing Lisa Orr’s rocket kiln in action at Queen City Clay centre. As well as being a potter renowned for her fluid, richly coloured and decorated tableware, Lisa has been experimenting to create fast and clean firing ‘rocket’ wood kilns. She is currently working to create a low emission ‘permaculture pottery paradise’ on her property in Massachusetts.

Popular in permaculture, rocket stove designs have heat risers that can be used for various applications such as cooking food, heating water, or as seen here, firing pots. Although rocket stoves can take up more space than a normal woodstove in the home, they are much more efficient. Soot and smoke, the volatile compounds released when wood burns are usually blown out of the chimney in a normal fireplace but in a rocket stove they are sucked into an insulated very hot ‘burn tunnel’ where they combust. The air intake is also larger than a conventional wood stove which allows for a more complete combustion. 

The example at Queen City utilised an adapted old electric toploader. Electrical elements had been removed from the kiln and holes cut in the base and top for the firebox and chimney flue. Lisa was on hand with Uncle Mud (aka Chris McClellan) to answer our questions. They explained how scraps of wood (as opposed to cordwood - I’m told the kiln could fire off one banana box full of scraps) were gravity fed into a j shaped combustion tube made of galvanised steel and kaowool, where it burned sideways and then upwards.

This portable firebox was the most expensive piece of this design, costing between $500 and $600 but one could be built from bricks for a more permanent kiln. The solution to coal buildup was to have two stoke hole options, one at the top of the j tube and another at the bottom, so that you could alternate between them and allow in extra oxygen for a clean burning of the embers. Lisa fired her pieces up to cone 2 (1162C) and the work was ready to be unloaded 6 hours later. The kiln fires fast too, this one climbed to 980C in the first hour! Although the kiln could be fired much higher, Simon explained to me the problem then is getting an even heat distribution because of the clean burning. An option might be to adapt the kiln to be a downdraft design. If you are in the States and interested to learn more, Lisa is running a workshop at Sugar Maples Centre for the creative arts, NY in July 2023. 

To see footage of the kiln in action: Uncle Mud and the Rocket Kiln at the NCECA Ceramics Conference (odysee.com)

Rocket kiln firebox

Rocket kiln in action

Cymraeg/Welsh

Wel, brysiodd mis Mawrth heibio fel y gwningen wen yn Alice in Wonderland. Dwi wedi dychwelyd yn ddiweddar hefo Simon o Syracuse, talaith Efrog Newydd ond am rwan dwi isho mynd yn nôl rhai wythnosau cyn y daith yna. Nôl yng nghanol mis Ebrill, gyda chefnogaeth hael ariannol gan gangen ‘Celfyddydau Rhyngwladol Cymru’ y Cyngor Celfyddydau, mynychais fy NCECA (Cyngor Cenedlaethol ar addysg i’r Celfyddydau Serameg) cyntaf yn Cincinnati.

Cafodd NCECA ei sefydlu yn 1966 ac mae'n sefydliad dielw sy'n meithrin addysg fyd-eang a gwerthfawrogiad o'r celfyddydau serameg. Mae’r gynhadledd yn cael ei gynnal yn flynyddol mewn dinas wahanol yn yr UD bob blwyddyn ac mae'n cynnwys dwsinau o gyflwyniadau, arddangosiadau ac arddangosfeydd. Enw digwyddiad eleni oedd ‘Current’ a chafodd ei gynnal yn Cincinnati, Ohio. Dywedodd Charles Dickens unwaith o’r ddinas ‘Ni welais yn aml le sy’n cymeradwyo ei hun mor ffafriol a dymunol i ddieithryn ar yr olwg gyntaf ag y mae’r ddinas yma.’ Mae’r boblogaeth wedi cynyddu saith gwaith yn fwy ers y dyddiau hynny. Ond os yw synnwyr hiwmor maer y ddinas o’r seremoni agoriadol yn unrhyw beth i farnu'r lle ar, dwi wedi cael fy ennill drosodd. Yn ymweld â’r dalaith yma, darganfyddais air newydd hefyd: llysenw Ohio yw’r ‘buckeye state’, a ‘buckeyes’ ydy beth dan ni’n galw ‘concyrs’ y castanwydd yn y DU. 

Roedd yr wythnos yn un ddwys o gwrdd â llawer o ffrindiau hen a newydd. Roedd amgylchedd corfforaethol y canolfan gonfensiwn yn teimlo braidd yn anghydweddol â'r byd serameg, gan ystyried bod y rhan fwyaf o bobl yno'n teimlo'n gartrefol mewn gweithdai llychlyd. Serch hynny, roedd yn wych gweld sut roedd yr ŵyl wedi treiddio drwy’r ddinas, gydag arddangosfeydd mewn lleoliadau lluosog, gan gynnwys arddangosfeydd ‘guerilla’, wedi’u hysbysebu ar lafar neu drwy instagram, fel y sioe ‘Past Curfew Pop-up’ yn y Somerset Bar.

Ar y dydd Llun cefais y cyfle i helpu’r Artstream Nomadic sefydlu. Mae'r oriel yma mewn hen drelar Airstream wedi'i hadnewyddu o 1967 ac yn cynrychioli artistiaid serameg cyfoes sefydledig a newydd. Maen nhw wedi bod yn teithio o amgylch y wlad gydag arddangosfeydd dros dro ers 2001. Wnaethon nhw ollwng angor y tro yma ym mhrif neuadd expo'r ganolfan gonfensiwn ac wrth osod y potiau allan, ges i’r cyfle i gyffwrdd llawer o waith gan artistiaid ar raglen y gwanwyn gan gynnwys Simon (llawer o botiau o daniad mis Chwefror), Julia Galloway, Josh Deweese a Tara Wilson.

Roedd fy rhaglen yn llawn ac yn amrywiol, gyda darlithoedd a sgyrsiau yn amrywio o ‘sut i lywio heneiddio wrth weithio gyda chlai’ at drafod ‘sut y gallwn hyrwyddo didwylledd a rhannu adnoddau yn y gymuned serameg’. Roeddwn wrth fy modd i gael clywed un o fy arwyr clai a ddarganfuwyd yn fwyaf diweddar, Jack Troy, yn adrodd ei farddoniaeth. Gwnaeth gonestrwydd a huodledd yr artistiaid newydd eleni argraff fawr arnaf hefyd. Roedd cyflwyniad Joshua Beckett am ‘Taflu gan ystyried Trawma’ yn ddadlennol. Wedi dysgu gwersi taflu ar olwyn y crochenydd yn ôl adref yn Nolgellau, doeddwn i erioed wedi ystyried o ddifrif sut y gallai lefel y diymadferthedd profiadol wrth ddechrau dysgu taflu ysgogi trawma mewn rhai pobl. Awgrymodd Beckett technegau ar gyfer adfer pŵer a rheolaeth i’r dysgwr yn ystod gwersi, er mwyn gwneud defnydd llawn o allu clai i gyfryngu datgysylltiad oddi wrth y corff.

Linda Christianson

Kait Arndt

Tân heb Fwg

Un o fy uchafbwyntiau oedd gweld odyn roced Lisa Orr ar waith yng nghanolfan clai Queen City. Yn ogystal â bod yn grochenydd sy’n enwog am ei llestri bwrdd hylifol, lliwgar ac addurnedig, mae Lisa wedi bod yn arbrofi i greu odynau ‘roced’ sy’n tanio’n gyflym a glân hefo pren fel tanwydd. Ar hyn o bryd mae’n gweithio i greu ‘paradwys permaddiwylliant crochenwaith’ allyriadau isel ar ei heiddo ym Massachusetts. 

Yn boblogaidd mewn permaddiwylliant, mae gan ddyluniadau stofiau roced godwyr gwres sy’n gallu cael eu defnyddio ar gyfer gymwysiadau amrywiol yn cynnwys coginio bwyd, gwresogi dŵr, neu fel yn yr enghraifft yma, tanio crochenwaith. Er y gall stofiau roced gymryd mwy o le na stôf llosgi bren arferol yn y cartref, maent yn llawer mwy effeithlon. Mae huddygl a mwg, y cyfansoddion anweddol sy’n cael eu rhyddhau pan gaiff pren ei losgi, yn cael eu chwythu fel arfer o’r simnai mewn lle tân arferol ond mewn stôf roced maen nhw’n cael eu sugno i mewn i ‘dwnnel llosgi’ poeth iawn wedi’i inswleiddio lle maen nhw’n llosgi. Mae'r cymeriant aer hefyd yn fwy na stôf llosgi pren sy'n caniatáu hylosgiad mwy cyflawn.

Roedd yr enghraifft yn Queen City yn defnyddio hen uwchlwythwr trydan wedi'i addasu. Roedd elfennau trydanol wedi'u tynnu o'r odyn a thyllau wedi'u torri yn y gwaelod a'r top ar gyfer y blwch tân a'r simnai. Roedd Lisa wrth law gydag Uncle Mud (aka Chris McClellan) i ateb ein cwestiynau. Egluron nhw sut oedd sbarion o bren (yn hytrach na ‘cordwood’ - gall yr odyn yma danio oddi ar un bocs banana yn llawn sbarion) yn cael eu fwydo trwy ddisgyrchiant i mewn i diwb hylosgi siâp j wedi'i wneud o ddur galfanedig a chaowool, lle'r oeddant yn llosgi i'r ochr ac yna i fyny. 

Y blwch tân cludadwy yma oedd y darn drutaf o'r dyluniad cyfan, gan gostio rhwng $500 a $600 ond gellid adeiladu un o frics ar gyfer odyn fwy parhaol. Y datrysiad ar gyfer cronni lludw oedd cael dau opsiwn twll stôc, un ar ben y tiwb j ac un arall ar y gwaelod, fel y gallech newid rhyngddynt a chaniatáu ocsigen ychwanegol i losgi'r pren yn lân. Taniodd Lisa ei darnau hyd at gôn 2 (1162C) ac roedd y gwaith yn barod i'w ddadlwytho 6 awr wedyn. Mae'r odyn yn tanio'n gyflym hefyd, dringodd hwn i 980C yn yr awr gyntaf! Er y gallai'r odyn gael ei danio'n llawer uwch, esboniodd Simon i mi mai'r broblem bryd hynny yw cael dosbarthiad gwres gwastad oherwydd y llosgi glân. Opsiwn posibl fyddai addasu'r odyn i fod yn ddyluniad ‘is-ddrafft’. Os ydych chi yn yr Unol Daleithiau a hefo diddordeb mewn dysgu mwy, mae Lisa yn cynnal gweithdy yng Nghanolfan y celfyddydau creadigol Sugar Maples, NY ym mis Gorffennaf 2023.


I weld ffilm o'r odyn ar waith: Yncl Mud a'r Odyn Roced yng Nghynhadledd Serameg NCECA (odysee.com)

Thunder Train

We’ve had a busy couple of weeks here at Mill Creek Pottery. In between listening to Roald Dahl audiobooks in the studio and impromptu jam nights, we somehow fulfilled the mammoth task of loading and firing Simon’s ‘Thunder Train’ kiln. Though more of a Big Friendly Giant than the name suggests, it has a sizable, but not unmanageable tunnel chamber, measuring in at a little less than 1.5 cubic metres of space. 

The kiln is packed from the door on one side, unlike the toploading bourry box built by Robert Sanderson at Guldagergaard, one I fired last autumn. This design makes it more of a challenge to load (but not so bad for someone fun-sized like me) although the fixed roof is a bonus as that one in Denmark could take a long time to assemble well. We placed in three stacks with two side stoking holes in between. Simon had a great hack for getting the last couple of shelves up in the middle, where the arch of the door blocks the way. We slowly raised the shelf up using some chunks of two by four lumber and a manual scissor lift. 

First Thunder Train firing - beginning the firing in the firebox ‘clean out’

Sliding door to the main chamber of the firebox on the opposite side

As with most firings this size, the effort was collaborative and we were joined by Emily Wheeler and Lars Voltz, ex apprentice and self styled muck maker and wood melter. Thank you both for making a fun team! The kiln was also host to a few hundred tiles, the beginning of our commission for Forrest Lesch Middelton (FLM Ceramics). We lined each shelf with these before stacking pots on top to encourage flashing and wadding halos. Like with the anagama firing back in Wisconsin in July, Simon uses a red and a white wadding. However, unlike Susanne Lukacs-Ringel, the German potter I worked with, who has specific waddings for specific clays, Simon’s approach is more of a mix and match - using red wadding on porcelain for dramatic effect rather than trying to hide the marks. 

After the second day of packing, we lit the kiln on Saturday the 25th. Beginning in the ‘clean out’ hole at the base of the firebox, we stoked in small pieces of pine until one cone 06 (approx 1000C) was softening at the front with the pyrometer reading around 1150F (621C), then transitioned to the main firebox. The initial climb of 100F/hr works out at a little more than 50C/hr. Firing in an alien temperature scale is perhaps a good exercise for learning not to rely too much on the electrics and to focus instead on the more accurate heat work readings of the cones. We didn’t end up doing body reduction cycles for each stack, I wonder how much this actually affects the final results. 

One of the surprises of this kiln for me was how seldom it needed feeding once it got up to temperature. Being used to hungry anagamas, train kilns still feel pretty novel. They work on the downdraft principle, the fire burning upside down as the flames are pulled through by the draft of the tall chimney. 

Once the transition was made to the main firebox, we piled in logs perpendicular to the metal grate on the inside, at first just a few during the transition phase and then more by the hour until the chamber was completely filled with each stoke. The gaps between feeds got longer over time, stretching from about 25 minutes at first then up to 40 minutes towards the end of the firing. 

That’s not to say that we were idle. Side stoking began about 14 hours in and continued throughout the firing with regular stokes of small softwood every 5-10 minutes. And despite the regular snacks, Thunder Train had a big appetite at feeding time. The firebox can hold a lot of wood and each stoke ate up about half a big wheelbarrow full of mixed logs - iridescent walnut, oak, pine, Osage orange and the occasional rippling cut of curly maple. 

Door bricks configuration with spyholes

First peek post-firing - Cones 10 and 12 still standing

44 hours in, once cone 9s were down at the back, Simon capped the chimney and Lars and I began the downfiring process. In order to create colourful flame flashing on the surface of the clay, it’s necessary to oscillate between cycles of reduction and oxidation as the kiln cools slowly. This is done by introducing small strips of softwood into the two side stoking holes until the bricks of the far side kiln wall are hidden by the flame fog. As soon as it clears you stoke again, alternating between middle and back. It’s a case of little and often with stokes every 2-4 minutes. This time we side stoked until midnight, just over six hours of toing and froing, the final reading at 1737F. Often Simon downfires until the pyro reads 1612F (877ishC) to get brighter reds. While firing with Yuichi Romita in Denmark we fired down even further to 1400F (760C). It is time consuming but not a large expense of extra wood. 

The results were great. I’m not prepared to share too much of my own work at this stage but I have a lot of feedback to bounce off. I like the warmth of the sculptural clay and want to work at getting control of distracting throwing lines.

Currently I’m sanding Simon’s pots which will be on sale through Artstream Nomadic Gallery at NCECA (National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts) next week - come check them out if you’re there, there are some beauties!

Tiles for FLM ready for sanding

A gem of a tea sipper bowl by Simon

 

Upending

The mugs I spoke about last week are slowly evolving. I’ve been getting a handle on handles, doing away with the strappy ones of the past in favour of a purchase with more robustness. I found that turning the handles upside down, with the thicker end at the base, narrowing towards the rim, complements these tapering vessel forms. Simon has introduced me to Clary Illian’s ‘A Potter’s Workbook’ which has some interesting points regarding both the physical and psychological strength of handles, as well as the importance of considering them from every angle. It cheered me up to read ‘one of the last shapes that student potters master is the mug’. There’s hope for me yet. 

Experimenting with handles

I realise that with my sculptural work I’m used to lessening the burden of choice making with my building technique. By throwing lots of components and assembling them together, I self impose constraints that stop me from getting paralyzed by the ‘blank page’ hurdle. With those pots I value serendipity, torn and smudged edges over fussiness. I don’t want the pieces to look overworked and lose their liveliness. Now however I’m faced with how to adapt to an upending of my usual process. The weight of serendipity lies instead in the firing process and I want to take advantage of its unique effects. 

We’re preparing for my first firing here next week and will be loading the kiln from Friday the 24th. I’ve been packing and unloading the bisque, sanding pots, sieving ash from the wood burner to use as a refractory kiln sealant and preparing paper rectangles for an FLM Ceramics (Forrest Lesch-Middelton) delivery of tiles that will be arriving early next week, and are to be fired in Simon’s train kiln. In between studio hours I’ve been getting in some driving practice on the right (wrong) side of the road. We’re only five minutes’ drive from the nearest convenience store in Pawnee but it would take an hour and a half walk along a highway ditch, which I’m not quite desperate enough to try yet. Looking forward to what the week ahead holds and to getting acquainted with the kiln.

Arrival

Well, after months of preparing, packing, form-filling, and Googling ‘dangerous creatures of Illinois’ I finally touched down in the Prairie State on February 1st. I’ve made it to Mill Creek Pottery, my home for the next 18 months where I’ll be apprenticing to wood-firing potter Simon Levin (see last post). 

Simon’s studio is situated in rural Illinois, not far from the state capital of Springfield, and surrounded by fields of corn and soybeans. The plains are a marked contrast from the mountains of Snowdonia where I’ve spent the last three years. My uneasiness at the wide expanses of flatness was quickly driven away though by the beauty of the sunsets here. Not quite on the coast in Dolgellau, they often get eaten up by the surrounding hills, but here the light stretches out in a sweeping panorama - it’s a real sight to behold. 

Sunset outside of Pawnee, IL

New to me as well has been learning to throw on a Leach treadle wheel. I’ve tried both momentum and treadle wheels a couple of times in the past but at a time when I couldn’t centre the clay, I found them frustratingly slow. Now however I’m excited to see how this foray into considering how a more direct relationship between my body and the clay will affect my work. 

The Kiln Shed

This week I’ve been trying out Laguna B-mix WC379, a creamy white smooth and porcelaneous stoneware. I’m focused on evolving a mug form that I’ve played with on and off for a while - I suppose you could call it a barrel form that tapers toward the rim and flares at the base. We used to have a couple of stripy mass produced ones of this shape at home until they broke. I remember the conic shape made them great for carrying tea around without spilling and keeping drinks warm. 

On Simon’s suggestion I listened to Pete Pinnell’s ‘Thoughts on Cups’ today. In just 30 minutes it has succeeded in establishing a completely new frame of reference in my mind. Pinnell proposes that comfort is not the ultimate criteria in defining the success of a cup’s function. He suggests that many in the pottery community hold the attitude towards functional pottery that the Victorians held towards children - that pots should be ‘seen and not heard’. To dispel this belief is to embrace giving pots a voice, and that is an extremely liberating notion. Another metaphor he draws is between choice of outfits and choice of pots. A wedding dress that makes you feel fabulous is likely not going to be the most comfortable garment in your wardrobe. 

I’ve got a lot of contemplating to do. In the meantime I’ve taken over the @1potaday Instagram page where I’ll be posting daily photos of Simon’s stunning work that is available to buy through his website www.simonlevin.com. Do give the page a follow.

Arts Council Wales Funded Mill Creek Pottery Apprenticeship

I am thrilled to announce some very exciting news that has been in the pipeline for some time. From February 2023 I will be moving to Mill Creek Pottery, Pawnee, Illinois for 18 months to join wood-firing potter Simon Levin as his next apprentice. Simon has been running a prestigious apprenticeship programme since 2004 and after being invited to Wisconsin to join his annual anagama workshop in July 2022, I’m delighted to have been accepted as his next (25th) apprentice. 

Simon fell in love with wood-firing in 1993 and in 2013 was a Fulbright Senior Scholar in Taiwan exploring the potential of local materials. He has been a visiting artist, lecturer and kiln builder at The China Academy of the Arts in Hangzhou and is regularly invited to build kilns and run workshops all over the US. As well as running the apprenticeship programme, in 2020 he began Clay Cohorts, year-long mentoring programmes to support artists.

I’m over the moon to have been successful for a ‘Create’ grant from Arts Council Wales to fund this professional development programme. ‘Create’ is a National Lottery funded grant which supports the development and creation of high quality arts experiences. Through this support I will be able to share my new learning with project partners across Wales and raise awareness of the international wood-firing community. I’m also grateful to the North American Wales Foundation for their generosity in providing financial assistance as well as International Arts and Artists who have sponsored my US visa.

Looking forward very much to sharing this journey with you! Edrych ymlaen at rannu'r daith yma hefo chi!

Fire and Salt on the Schwäbische Alb

In the spring of 2022 I spent six weeks with potter Susanne Lukács-Ringel in Southern Germany. Below is an account of my time there.

I arrive in Baden-Württemberg, the southeastern-most state of Germany in March. In the previous days a Sahara sand storm has blown through the country and as we stop off to buy groceries on the way from the airport, I notice the vehicles in the car park are coated in desert dust. It is strange to think that the same components of this dust: silica, clay minerals and iron oxides, are what I will dedicate the next six weeks to exploring as a pottery assistant to Susanne Lukacs-Ringel in the village of Mörsingen.

Some years previously I had met Susanne in the UK whilst volunteering at Art in Clay Hatfield. There’s a tenderness and warmth that emanates from her delicate functional vessels, and I was keen to learn more about the wood and salt-firing methods she uses. I kept in touch and am delighted when, post-pandemic, the opportunity to travel arrives. 

Here on the Schwäbische Alb, a high limestone plateau, the wind is bitingly cold in mid-March despite the sun. Nestled behind the pastel pink church at the highest point of the village, Susanne’s home sits amongst gently undulating hills of patchwork farmland, bordered by deciduous forest. Her showroom, workshop, wood stacks and kilns are spread out between a series of wooden barns and outbuildings. Standing guard around the perimeter are ceramic dogs, polar bears and foxes by her daughter, Devon-based artist Marieke Ringel. 

We spend the first couple of weeks preparing for Susanne’s first salt firing of the year. The fast-fire kiln is part of a two chambered fusion kiln, built with Fred Olsen in 2005. By blocking off the flues from the attaching groundhog chamber, it can be fired in a day. Most of the kiln will be filled with porcelain dipped in Susanne’s signature cobalt kaolin wash, not a glaze in itself but glassy when combined with the volatilized salt. Dotted on each shelf all around the pots will be tiny dishes filled with salt, already high fired, a technique which Susanne encountered in La Bourne. My first task is to produce as many of these stoneware salt dishes as possible.

On April the second it’s time to fire. During the night while the kiln has been preheating with gas, a thick blanket of snow has fallen, softening the yard like a carpet of ceramic fibre. Reinhard, Susanne’s brother-in-law joins us and we begin from around 7am, stoking metre-long softwood at first into one firebox to 650C and then alternating between the two. 

Drawing out test rings indicates that we have a strong reduction, a positive sign. Later in the evening more salt is introduced, pinned in paper bags to wooden planks, adding to a total of almost 6kg. Fuelled by Schwäbisch kartoffelsalat, wurst and pineapple swiss roll, the firing continues until cone 13 is halfway down, by which time it is almost 9pm. 

The snow doesn’t last long and by the next day has thawed in the garden, the shade from the forests leaving a white shoreline on the edges of the fields. Unpacking a few days later we’re delighted. The cobalt on Susanne’s carved surfaces morphs from cornflower blue to a deep matte turquoise. The celadons inside are vibrant and glossy. Success.

The next weeks are spent preparing for the big double chamber firing, the first time in three years this anagama style wood kiln had been fired. Family, friends and visitors arrive and the house is transformed into a hive of activity. We begin the firing on the evening of April 14th, toasting the kiln with Irish whiskey; the kiln gods approve with a firework display of lightning and rattling thunder. A small bonfire of criss-crossed hardwood logs on the ground outside the firebox slowly preheats the chamber and over the next 24 hours the pyrometer steadily climbs to 300C. 

The following weekend is a blur of hot afternoons and clear, cold nights as I work the graveyard and later afternoon shifts with potter and paediatrician Emy. By the small hours of Saturday morning, we have the job of holding the kiln at 600C for an hour before starting to stoke through the door, introducing a mixture of softwood and hardwood to raise the temperature quickly. At noon Monday the cones are all down at the front and the decision is made to shut off the groundhog after two final cycles of heavy reduction. In one last sooty effort, Susanne and daughter-in-law Kasha push the salt chamber to cone 13, bringing to a close the 96 hour-long endeavour. 

Despite some overfiring on the front stack, there is an abundance of real gems. The shinos are rich with surfaces varying from toasty ochres to deep, velvety purples and some shimmering like fish scales. On the porcelain, Turner-esque flashes of salmon pink show traces of the flame’s path, and crystal growths dust the surfaces like snowflakes. Susanne’s work draws from the deep tradition of salt-glazed pottery in Germany, fusing technology developed in her home country with the aesthetics of the east, and she does it masterfully. 

You could be forgiven for thinking that all the inhabitants of the little village of Mörsingen are wood firing potters. Wood is so central to life here that stacks of it can be seen outside every house. On my return home the entry terminal at Stuttgart Airport is an unequivocal reminder of this. Travellers are greeted by a forest of geometric dendriforms, steel tubes in the shapes of trees, their metallic branches extending upwards to support the slanting roof. I too feel new offshoots sprouting after my experience here. Who knows yet what fruit they will yield.

Website:

Susanne Lukács-Ringel  https://www.holzbrandkeramik.de

Teapot and cups by Susanne Lukacs-Ringel



'The Willow House'

Between June 18th and July 16th 2022 I will be exhibiting new work in ‘The Willow House’ exhibition at Twenty Twenty Gallery, Ludlow.

The show highlights a series of phantasmagoric oil paintings by British painter Ann McCay alongside ceramics by myself and James Burnett-Stuart.

You can find more details about purchasing work through the following link: https://www.twenty-twenty.co.uk/artists/hughes-elin/

Liberty London x Crafts Council

Between April 27th and July 31st 2022, Liberty London partnered up with the Crafts Council to present 'The Gallery', a selection of work from nine independent makers from the Crafts Council's Directory. The exhibition highlights the breadth of craft in the UK today, from textiles and handcrafted spoons, to pottery and furniture.

I’m very grateful to be one of the selected makers and to share a new series of vessels in this iconic London store. Find the showcase on the fourth floor, alongside original Liberty designs. Pieces are available to buy in store and online through the following link: https://www.libertylondon.com/uk/features/the-gallery-liberty.html

You can find more information about the makers taking part as well as links to accompanying interactive workshops and events at Liberty here: https://www.libertylondon.com/uk/events/workshops/liberty-in-partnership-with-the-crafts-council.html



Focus on the Female: London Art Fair Edit

I’m delighted to be included in Focus on the Female: London Art Fair Edit with the Cynthia Corbett Gallery this coming weekend.

You can find the gallery at Stand 5 at the Business Design Centre, Islington between April the 21st and 24th (preview evening on the 20th). This all women curation is part of a continuing female curatorial project created through the Young Masters Art Prize - more details and information about the participating artists through the following link:

https://www.thecynthiacorbettgallery.com/exhibitions/279-london-art-fair-2022-stand-5/overview/



'Ar Ddaear Gofod Bach/On Earth a Little Space'

Happy New Year/Blwyddyn Newydd Dda! Another time of transitions and some new work to show, going on display in my first solo exhibition at the end of the month.

‘Ar Ddaear Gofod Bach/On Earth a Little Space’, brings together a new series of abstract vessels transmuted through fire, with many of the pieces fired at Oxford University Kilns last September. 

Opening at Oriel Plas Glyn y Weddw, Llanbedrog, North Wales on January the 30th, the show will run until March 20th 2022, alongside new exhibitions by Catrin Williams, Sian Parri and Katy Mai Webster. Originally planned for last January, this exhibition was postponed due to Covid-19 lockdown restrictions.

Opening takes place at 2pm on January 30th. For more information: https://www.oriel.org.uk/en/events/2022/arddangosfa-agoriadol-2022

Pictured: ‘Jar Seidr Di-Ddeuoldeb/Non Dualist Cider Jar’ (2021) Wood fired stoneware with ilmenite glaze and wild clay inclusions, 20x20x15cm

Pictured: ‘Celadon Rhithweledol/Celadon Hallucinating’ (2021) Wood fired stoneware with celadon glaze, 19x17x15cm



Ash Ember Flame, A Japanese Kiln in Oxford

In October and November 2021, two special firings were held at the smallest of Oxford Anagama’s wood kilns as part of a collaboration with The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH). The results from these firings are being gathered together this month as part of ‘Ash Ember Flame’, an exhibition opening at the Japanese Embassy in London on Friday December 10th.

This exhibition brings together work from students, academics, potters and community groups, highlighting the variety of subtle effects that can be achieved through anagama firing. I’m delighted to have a piece of work in the show alongside such a wealth of talent. You can find more details through the link below:

https://www.uk.emb-japan.go.jp/itpr_en/211119kilnExhibition_00001.html

‘The unique conditions of the project, combined with the esoteric nature of anagama kilns, has culminated in the production of work that is as exciting to look at as it is significant, where serendipity and intention have produced works of art that are unrepeatable and beautiful.’