Fire Dancing with Dr Seuss

摘要

IN JULY OF 2003 I SPENT time in Oosterwolde (Fochteloo) Holland at the pottery of Kees Hoogendam, who had spent much time in Africa studying the native pottery traditions and aiding in their preservation. He shared with me his findings and introduced me to wood-fired earthenware bottle kilns while I participated in a workshop at his home in Oosterwolde. Despite the fact that we had a communication barrier (Dutch and US Southern English), he taught me to modify my production throwing attitudes which had been in-grained from my early journeyman work in Seagrove, North Carolina (NC) to those attitudes more conducive to an open dialogue between potter and clay. Yet, the most lasting contribution of Hoogendam to my pottery interest was his earthenware bottle kiln which we fired while I was in Holland. It will easily reach cone 02 with little wood consumption in four hours and is built simply.