Wood firing
2019
For me, IT’S LIKE DRAWING WITH FIRE,
and your ceramic forms are like canvases that guide the flame and interact with this organism, the kiln itself.
It breaths and pulses and every time you feed it wood It suffocates while it burns the oxygen …then it screams the next step.
You are there to listen and take action.
Magic and alchemy.
I was amazed to discover a part of me connected with this way of firing and a place where I could connect with the element of fire in such a level.
It is Raw and Ancient and I found deep roots and instincts related to it!
High temperature Wood firing is an ancient way of firing clay, with specific kilns (at first the ‘Dragon kiln’) deriving from China as early as the 1600 BC and then moving to Korea (100-300 AC) and later in Japan (the ‘Anagama kiln’), reaching Europe only in the last century. It can reach temperatures of 1300 – 1400 C° and can take from 30 hours to 1-2 weeks of constant wood stoking, depending on what kind of kiln is used.
Of course, the use of it has changed through time and it has reached our times in a way that gives artistic value to its usage.
What goes on in this kiln comes out written on the every object.
You can read the voyage of the fire imprinted on them.
The flames carry the ashes (created by the long hours of stoking),
together with all the oxides found in the clay and wood,
depositing onto the ceramic bodies and at key temperatures, they melt and vitrify,
creating their unique story!
Immortalizing their ordeal!
Everything influences the outcome… the type of wood, the amount and frequency of every stoke and the every temperature and atmospheric change that occurs.
Your every action has a reaction and it’s a play of control and letting go!
Your energy together with the one of others gets transformed into matter!
