Wood Fired Doesn't Mean Brown

摘要

The currently popular style of wood-fired pottery that emphasizes raw clay surfaces, ash runs, Shino glazes and flashing is so pervasive that one seldom sees contemporary wood-fired pottery that embraces other traditions. In fact, the "ash-and-flash" bandwagon is so overloaded it can seem that there are no other vehicles on the wood-firing highway. Don't get me wrong-I appreciate and admire warm, toasty, fire-flashed, ash-enhanced clay surfaces. Otherwise, I certainly wouldn't have spent the time and effort to build a wood-fired kiln, collect the fuel and then spend hours stoking the fire, when it is so easy to turn on a gas spigot. But there is more to life than ashes and shades of brown. I also love glazes, color and decorating pots. Remember that, until recent ceramics history, almost all ceramics were wood fired. I like pots that reveal themselves slowly to a thoughtful viewer or user. Frankly, I don't want my pots to scream, "I am wood fired!" Over the past several years, while firing an Olsen fastfire-style kiln, I've developed what, for me, is a good balance between colorful and purposeful glaze and slip work and the rich, somewhat random, unpredictable effects of wood firing.