Pottery In Australia Vol 38 No 3 September 1999

Lorne Woodfire
I am sitting in that well known state of inspiration, enthusiasm, camaraderie and exhaustion which
follows wood fire events. On pondering the last five days of the Qdos Woodfire Conference in Lorne,
it becomes plain that it was just not possible, even without sleeping, to take in all that was
happening. Report by ROBERT KNIGHTON
The seed for the event was sown when Graeme
Wilkie attended the last Gulgong happening. It
seems that since Graeme moved into other media
including steel, concrete and fibreglass he had considered
giving up clay as a medium. However, at Gulgong Janet
Mansfield apparently convinced him to not only
persevere with clay but to build an Anagama and to hold
this spectacular event. Graeme also gives credit to Connie
Dridan for facilitating the presence of Gesson Hananaka
and Tomita Reishi at the event. So it was
that the builders, Ian, Kris, Staumn and
Graeme in the course of January to April
this year constructed an Anagama kiln. A
graceful construction measuring some 10
metres long and about 2m high and 2m
wide at its girth, it has much flexibility in
terms of stoking, active and passive
damping, lots of side stoking ports, and
provision to feed air under floor to various
parts of the kiln. The rise of the kiln is in
six steps of two bricks each terminating in
an absolutely satisfactory flue. Construction
was bricks over formwork with an outer
layer of cow manure, sand and clay which
was still very wet as we arrived.
After loading, bricking up and mudding
in, the throng gathered in a state of great
excitement and expectation to witness the
guest of honour, Sensei Gesson Hamanaka carry out the
kiln lighting ceremony. With hand clapping to attract the
attention of the Kiln God, sprinkling of salt at the four
corners and whistling, the first kindling was lit. So many
people then stepped in, putting symbolic first logs on the
fire that it looked like being a very fast firing. The first
stoking team took control, settled the fire down to a
more appropriate level and something of a rhythm was
established. Stoking shifts were six hours at a time.
9.00pm to 3.00am, 3.00 am to 9.00 am and so on over the
next three days. Being a truly democratic and egalitarian
event, there was no master plan. Each team adopted its
own plan for the particular shift, sometimes recording
results on the graph and if things didn't go to plan -'I
The 'wild beast' kiln.
guess the next shift can fix that'.
Meanwhile back at the main gallery Len Castle from
New Zealand, one of a contingent of four from across the
Tasman, was explaining to us his passions for clay,
geothermal activity, glaze interactions, photography and
the guitar preludes of Villa Lobos. He put all of these
things together in a truly stunning two projector slide
show. Both projectors were aimed at the same screen so
that by moving his hands in front of the lenses, Len could
fade from one image to another. This enabled him to
show us the visual connections that he sees between the
mineral colours of boiling mud and glaze surfaces,
between textures in nature and some of the things that
are possible with clay, all to beautifully atmospheric
guitar. When the light gently faded from a gold rimmed
glaze on glaze platter to the last bar of Villa Lobos there
was hushed silence followed by deafening applause.
During the quiet first shift there was time for the
construction of a 'rustique' chess set with funny little
pawns, wild eyed bishops, an anorexic white queen and
all the others. The board was a kiln bat marked out in
squares with oxide. Some played chess, some stoked,
some were excited, some slept. At Bill Samuels' initiative
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38 POTTERY IN AUSTRALIA + 38/3 SEPTEMBER 1999