I attended Steven Hill‘s workshop at the Craft Guild of Dallas several years ago. He is a generous and amazing potter.
I love his work and am constantly impressed and influenced by it!
Wood firing is something that I had always wanted to try/experience and I am most fortunate that the Murwillumbah Potter’s Group has a wood kiln at the Fernvale location
The wood fired kiln was built by JIm Hall (pictured above). Ann Lee (also pictured above) is instrumental in the success of the wood firings at Fernvale.
I’ve participated in two wood firings and I found several things surprising.
For one, it is a tremendous amount of work! I worked the midnight to morning shift both times stoking the kiln and it was a killer – heat, physically difficult – but fun!!!
Another epiphany about the wood firings is that the type of piece and the glaze put on the piece are both very important. Each piece must be suited to the earthy, ash glazes that result from the wood fire. Also, the delicate, carefully thrown pieces don’t look as good as the more rustic, hand-built pieces. Sculpture is especially nice in the wood fired kiln.
The most recent wood firing at the Murwillumbah Potters Group, Murwillumbah, NSW was a huge success!
Sumerian Jug
My daughter, Liz, had a dream that I was a Sumerian potter – which seemed really random at the time. Upon googling “Sumerian potter” we discovered that:
“The wheel was invented by the ancient Sumerians. They lived in the land between the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers in the Middle East. Much, much later this land became part of the country we call Iraq. The Sumerians were the first people to develop a written language. Extensive studies of their writings have led archaeologists and historians to also credit them with the invention of the wheel.
“Potter” Image courtesy of dan/FreeDigitalPhotos.net
The concept of the wheel actually grew out of a mechanical device that the Sumerians had invented shortly after 3500 B.C.—the potter’s wheel. No other civilization of their time had one. This was a heavy flat disk made of hardened clay. It was spun horizontally on an axis to allow the potter to form evenly shaped jars and bowls from wet clay. The Sumerians didn’t, however, simply turn this clay-splattered wheel on its end and hook it to a wagon to make a wheel. Instead, the concept of the wheel went through many stages of development before it became a practical method for moving heavy objects from one location to another.” Source
In addition, historically, many potters were women. Source
That is my dream too – to someday be regarded as a great, or at least good, potter.
Isn’t it great to be part of a craft that has such an amazing history and that it’s still going today in much the same way as it did thousands of years ago!