The Allure of Wood Firing

Relatively few working potters use wood as a fuel for making pottery.  The process is highly demanding and requires a great deal of time.  Intensive labor is needed for preparing wood, wadding pottery, as well as, maintaining and firing the kiln. 

The kilns I fire require communities of potters to operate them.  The Anagama kilns are stoked continuously for 100 hours, consuming 5-6 cords of wood each and reaching temperatures of 2400 F making the pottery dense as stone.

The process of burning wood in the kiln creates a river of fire, a downpour of ash and embers interact with pottery in unique ways.  Warping, ash glaze runs, fused embers and flashing on pottery are natural and unpredictable effects of the wood fired process.  When effects from firing and marks of the potter combine, it can make a pot of unparalleled beauty, a pot that can never be duplicated.