These two wood firing exhibitions were held concurrently in the Chehalem Cultural Centre in Newberg, Oregon. Wood-fired pottery is what I am practicing and love, so I was especially excited to see these shows. The Chehalem Centre was a bit of a drive outside Portland, but we hooked up with some old friends and ate at a fantastic Korean market on the way.

In the interest of good record-keeping, I have written out the labels on the pieces as they were in the exhibitions, including their prices. I've also included links to the artists' websites where I could find them.

Great Waves Over the Pacific: On Wood Firing. (March 7 - March 25, 2017)

Ashes & Flux. (March 7th - 25, 2017)

This exhibition was in the same gallery space as the  Great Waves show, and the transition was easy. Ashes & Flux represents the wood-fired pottery of the North West. It concentrated on the work coming out of four anagama stye kilns: East Creek, Noble Hill, Pleasant Hill, and the  FuuKooGama. 





Central to this blossoming tradition is the East Creek Anagama. This was the first anagama kiln built in the U.S. west of the Mississippi. The project was started by Nils Lou, Frank Boydon, and Tom Coleman approximately 32 years ago. It was based on an eighth century Korean kiln. Made of over 5,000 hand cut bricks, it measures about 16 feet long, 6 wide, and 5 tall. Many students have come to help prepare for firings and take shifts firing the kiln. It was East Creek that spawned the other three anagama kilns included in this exhibition. I'll show the pots from East Creek first though.






I love this fish.




Completed in 2004, the Noble Hill anagama was built (on a Christmas Tree farm) by Mark Terry. He was inspired to build his own anagama by years of firing at East Creek. It is only about 120 cubic feet (about a third of the size of East Creek's kiln). In its 13 years of use, Terry's kiln has been fired more than 60 times and served to introduce many young potters to wood firing.









The FuuKooGama was designed, owned and operated by Ruri. It was modified/built with help from Yoshiyuki Ito, Mashiko. The main aim was to vitrify the pots without any slip or glaze or really any form of surface manipulation. FuuKooGama means "Wind and Light Kiln" (Foo means wind and Koo means light). She describes in her video interview (linked below) that often you cannot see wind or light, but can feel it: Ruri tries to express something she cannot see through clay that is transformed in her kiln. This definitely ties in to Takashi Nakazato's teaching. As well as the below pictures, all of Ruri's work on display in the Waves exhibition was anagama fired for seven days in the FuuKooGama.

There is a great video on youtube about Ruri and her work, especially discussing building and firing the FuuKooG ama. This is part 1 of 2:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ub8FUqj5lgY

I particularly enjoyed how she talks about the flame in the kiln moving like a mountain stream; speeding up where pieces are closely packed and causing flashing effects.


Some of my favorite pots from Ashes & Flux came out of Pleasant Hill. It was started in 2000 by Tom Rohr and Kathryn Finnerty, but has since been taken over by Jesse Jones and Lauren Sommers. They have four wood kilns now. The first was built in 2001; a 60 cubic foot two-chambered wood, biodiesel, salt kiln-named 'Pepino.' Next came a 110 cubic foot anagama, named 'Tomogama,' in 2007. Then they added a wood/biodiesel soda kiln in 2014 and finally a small wood/biodiesel train kiln was built in 2014.







As you can tell, I liked these plates a lot. Amazing silky flashed surfaces. Jesse told me that the plates were unglazed and unslipped going in the kiln; made using a g-mix... a clay mixed by a local company called Georgies. They were fired in the anagama close to the floor, about 18" off the face, in a stack of four with about an inch in between each plate.







This exhibition reminded me how large wood kilns such as these can bring people together and foster learning experiences outside of formal college environs. I think it could be an interesting model to consider when I build a kiln of my own. Having additional people to help prepare all the wood, grind the kiln shelves, load, and fire must be pretty nice too!

Well I think that's all for now. Wish we had had time to go out and visit these kilns. Next time!