What Are Wood Fired Ceramics

Creative wood fired hand formed kurinuki technique ceramics functional and sculptural by american artist lucien m.

What are wood fired ceramics.

Koonce horsepen kiln studio of western massachusetts. The japanese have always held wood fired ceramics in high esteem wood kilns can not only produce temperatures of 1400 c 2 500 f wood fires also produce fly ash and volatile salts. Our studio pottery shop and wood fired kiln are located in yellow springs ohio. The woodfired surface is a huge reason that i got into pottery.

In our world functional pottery is anything that can be used whether it s a mug that holds your daily coffee or a vase to display a bouquet of flowers from the farmer s market. If you are into ceramics and also love wood fired ceramics it is one that needs to be in your library. Most wood fired kilns are built on site and are quite expensive. Fortunately the unique beauty of wood fired pottery is again becoming a highly appreciated art form throughout the world.

Wood is stoked into the kiln and combusts into flame ashes and coals which consumes the pottery and naturally paints the raw clay surfaces. Since humans first began to understand how fire hardened clay we have been making ceramics both in pits and in wood kilns. Miami valley pottery produces hand made functional wood fired pottery. It is quite a coffee table book as it is a very large book.

Are contemporary wood firing potters those same people wandering around. Given this expense and the vast amount of labor and the high cost of the fuel our train kiln will hold 200 400 pieces and uses two cords of wood wood firing is comparatively rare. Pine tree mug large coffee mug wood fired pottery pine trees art rustic pottery mug stoneware mug wheel thrown mug woodsy mug. Wood for thousands of years was the main source of fuel for firing ceramics.

Our pieces are made with sturdy materials and a lot of love. While wood kiln firing isn t easy the results are incomparable. Nc wood fired ceramics. Wood fired ceramics contains some of the top artists in the world using the process.

The ceramic scholar philip rawson gave the keynote address at the iowa wood firing conference in 1991 and compared contemporary wood firing to a 19th century cult in which artists who were appalled by social and cultural ostentation wandered around pulling grotesque faces in mockery of the pretension around them. Now with so many fuel options available to the potter wood fired kilns are more of a choice than a necessity.