Hollis Engley on thu 4 sep 03
----- Original Message -----
From: Craig Dunn Clark
To:
Sent: Wednesday, September 03, 2003 4:07 PM
Subject: Re: Oxidation to look like Reduction
> Just to chum the waters a bit........the idea (one that I
unfortunately
> share more times than I want to admit) that a reduction fired piece is
> somehow better than an equally well crafted piece that is fired in an
> electric kiln is absurd.
Craig: Obviously, anyone can make any kind of pot any way they want =
to.
If someone wants to use an electric kiln to simulate a week of firing in =
an
anagama, knock yourself out. Firing electrically is indeed a quiet, not
particularly exciting way to fire pots. But that is not the same as =
saying
that the pots that come from an electric kiln have to be quiet and
unexciting. Lots of great pots come from electric kilns.
I'm not at all saying that live fire pots are better than electric =
pots.
There's a potter who lives near me, Ron Geering, who makes marvelous
slipware and he fires it in an old electric kiln whose elements he's
replaced over and over again. He's an amazing craftsman. I wish I had =
his
skills.
But I like the results I get from reduction firing, whether it's in a
gas-fueled kiln or a wood-fueled kiln. And it just seems misguided to =
try to
duplicate in one kind of kiln the results you would get from another =
type.
That's what it feels like for me, though, as I say, anyone can do =
anything
they want to do. If it's what Barb wants to do, I hope she has fun and I
hope she gets great pots and shares the results with us.
As to wood-firing, yes, for me it's about the surfaces you get from =
the
clay being exposed to the flame and the ash. And it is, to a certain =
degree,
about the time you spend doing it, especially with big anagamas that =
take
days to get to temperature. It's a lot of work, and you take your =
chances
with what comes out after it cools. I don't know about spirituality, but =
I
do know that there's an elemental connection to the past in firing with
wood. There just is; low-tech, laborious fire and clay. And I don't =
expect
everyone to understand that any more than I expect everyone to =
understand
why I'm a Red Sox fan. (God knows the customers this summer at our craft
co-op didn't sweep the anagama pots off the shelves.)
As to how long wood-firing will last, I think there's plenty of wood =
fuel
left in this country. I don't know about Japan. The four or five wood =
kilns
I've fired use waste wood, wood that would end up in a landfill - pine =
slab
off-cuts, cedar scraps from furniture and gazebo factories, boards from
demolished barns - and yes, sometimes oak and maple firewood. Finding =
wood,
at least in this area, is not a problem. As to environmental concerns, =
part
of the electricity that I use to bisque my pots in my old Duncan kiln =
comes
from a nuclear power plant about 40 miles from here. And we still =
haven't
figured out what to do with spent nuclear fuel rods that will be =
dangerous
for thousands of years.
Hollis
Hatchville Pottery
Falmouth, Mass.
hengley@cape.com
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