Mill Creek Pottery Excursion Day #4

Today Tom closed up the flue in the back of the anagama kiln, Tom and I got a trailer full of lath from a lumber place in Shawano, I finished glazing my pots, hauled brick around, cleaned out the cross draft kiln, made wading, ground more bricks (if you're reading this Ruby I always wore my mask.), and began loading pots. New stuff was coming down the pipe all the time. Simon sounds like a wood fire guru. What I learned in loading a very small portion of the kiln: the manner in which you load pots is extremely important. I got the idea not to think of the pots as simply receiving the lick of flame and intense radiated heat, but as controlling the flame and heat, directing it as you see fit--it's what you do with this ability that makes any differences.

Wood firing pottery requires much. It is a very time, labor, and mind intensive process. But it is also a very intimate process. It reminds me about pouring concrete and the ways you would handle materials--how you would touch something dozens of times before it was left alone and built on top of, or used to support something. You handle these things many times and out of that comes a great work. It's very much like that here. From raw clay to sanding a finished piece there is a special kind of intimacy you have--something that needs to be explored further.

We played soccer tonight at a school in Shawano. I am way out of that kind of shape. I definitely did not dominate. But I had a good time. At Bemidji State University my ceramics professor,Butch Holden played an insane amount of racket ball, and he was freakin' awesome at it. Simon plays quite a bit of soccer, and he dominates as well. I wonder if every potter has a sport they love to play? I wonder what Shoji Hamada played? Maybe marbles.