Pinchpots

"Friends and Fire-mates" exhibition opening in Middelfart

2012-01-16T11:52:00.000+01:00

"Friends and Fire-mates" - Nina Hole's collection of 150 mini-art works in matchboxes, sent to her to celebrate her 70th birthday by friends and fellow artists from all over the world, opened yesterday at Grimmerhus International Museum of Ceramic Art, in Middelfart, Fyn, Denmark.

We set off early from Copenhagen in sharp winter sunshine.

Crossing the "Storebælt" bridge from Sjælland to Fyn

Grimmerhus Ceramic Museum in the clear and frosty light

The museum overlooks the "Lillebælt" between Fyn and Jylland

Amazing birthday cakes were served at the opening

Elegant display cases

It was a great pleasure to see favourite pieces again (they had been shown last year at Guldagergaard),and also to see the many new pieces which have been added since then.
More are still arriving.........

Andile, Tina and Lisa

2012-01-10T22:46:00.001+01:00

Andile, Tina and Lisa, originally uploaded by woodfirer.

In just over a month I will be in South Africa, first in Johannesburg where I am planning to fire with Sue Sellschop at the Vaal River, (taking bisque pots with me in hand luggage), and then Cape Town where I will visit these three great potter friends: Andile Dyalvane, Clementina van de Walt and Lisa Firer

Last pots pinched for the "Julestue"

2011-12-05T23:33:00.001+01:00

Pinched and carved light holders drying on top of the kiln - three more, just pinched, stiffening before final pinching

Kitchen pots

2011-12-04T11:19:00.001+01:00

When I had finished packing a kiln with work for my Christmas Sale/Julestue (Saturday 10th December 11 - 17) late last night, I took some photos in the kitchen of the pots I enjoy seeing around me and using each day.

"Bowl" to serve steaming hot potatoes, gift from Sten Lykke Madsen

Kitchen window sill

Rosemary and bay leaves in a wonderful Akio Takamori vase. On the right, little Bede Clarke pot which has been filled with nasturtiums all through the late summer, and behind, a rhino candlestick made by my son Halfdan when he was 6 or 7.

Tiny bowl by Gutte Eriksen

Onion pot by Katrin Otolski from Woserin in Germany and salt mortar from Lenny Goldenburg on the island of Bornholm

Carved wooden spoons

2011-11-24T21:05:00.001+01:00

Add caption

Such a collection of spoons can only inspire one to pinch many small bowls to set them off.

Thank you to Inger Jørgensen who tracked them down for me in Nairobi, and brought them back to Denmark.

Today's production

2011-11-23T18:25:00.001+01:00

Bowls thrown yesterday ready for trimming

On the kick wheel. In the background: 36 pinched salt pots, first stage of pinching. For Christmas sale, to accompany tiny hand carved wooden spoons from Kenya.

Salt pots

Candlesticks - cut-out, rolled and assembled.

These are also porcelain - I will glaze them in bright colours and stain them to emphasise their cracks and joints.

Throwing with soft clay

2011-11-22T18:58:00.001+01:00

Throwing bowls

Today I have been throwing on my kick wheel using reconditioned porcelain - so soft and delightful to throw in a way that pristine straight-out-of-the bag porcelain never is.
These bowls are going to be used in my search for the perfect celadon - or rather, a celadon that exists in my imagination.

Sketches from Rome

2011-11-06T11:15:00.000+01:00

The view from the flat we stayed in in Via Urbana, Monti

A corner of Piazza de Poppolo

Rome 2011

2011-10-21T17:30:00.001+02:00

Rome 2011, a set on Flickr.

We've been in Rome for 6 lovely sunny autumn days.......

Looking at the work from Flagstaff

2011-09-20T09:42:00.001+02:00

Now that I have finally got a new camera (my previous camera had spots on the image) I have been sorting and photographing the work I brought back from my residency at Northern Arizona University in April/May this year.

Pinched and coiled pot, 20cms tall

Pinched and coiled pot, other side

Spider cup 1

Spider cup 2

Spotted bowl with ash glaze drip

Bowl 10cms diameter

And then the pit-fired favourites - all were made in the same fine grained white stoneware.

These are all small - at most 12 cms tall

On the left with terracotta terra siggalata

Frueplads Craft Market, Copenhagen

2011-08-13T11:58:00.000+02:00

Christian Bruun's striped porcelain cups: see him throwing them here

Porcelain by Christian Bruun

Mugs by Malene Møller Hansen

Malene Møller Hansen tries to keep her spirits up in the teeming rain....

The tower of Vor Frue Kirke reflected in Pernille Mouritzen's glass display box.

Hans and Birgitte Börjeson, market veterans, with salt-glazed pots in new and delicate colours

Estonia - the rest of the story

2011-08-05T13:55:00.000+02:00

Ink and wash drawing done at the start of the second firing

Somehow, writing the blog has been out of my mind for a good long time. So now, after a quick trip to England to collect the work from my exhibition in Southwold, I am going to round off the story.

I now have all the work I brought back from Flagstaff and from Kohila together in one place and can look at it and see just what came out of all the travelling, making and firing, summer, 2011.

The large piece I made at Kohila was the one that pleased me most: made to stand out in the park, and to acquire a patina of moss and lichen, it has an old tombstone-like quality already, and the two words, "Kured" (Storks) and "Konnad" (Frogs), reversed on the other side, can be read when one comes up close. It is meant as a celebration of the number of storks nesting around Kohila - storks in Denmark are less successful as there are not the same huge numbers of frogs. In the grass of Tohisoo Manor park you had to look where you trod to avoid stepping on them. Rich pickings for storks.

The little round pinched pots I made at Flagstaff and at Kohila also are very successful: the pit-fired ones from Flagstaff are intensely black with white shadows - but not watertight - does this matter? One from Kohila was painted with kiln wash and has grey and white tones, with brown-gold speckles from the sprayed-in wheat bran.

This wheat bran was not appealing on my porcelain bowls where it splattered a toffee-like layer, rather superficially wherever it struck or stuck....I will try re-firing them as high as possible to see if that will temper it a bit.

Kiln packing again again

2011-07-18T13:05:00.002+02:00

Ray Chan and Kaupo Holmberg carrying Kaupo's "Chimera" to the kiln

Marc Lancet had just carried the first section of his large figure the 50 meters to the kiln

My piece "Konnad - Kured" (Frogs - Storks) in the middle and Kaupo's "Fury" in front

" Konnad - Kured" going into place

Evening , Tohisoo manor

2011-07-17T08:02:00.002+02:00

Evening , Tohisoo manor, originally uploaded by woodfirer.

Atmospheric evening music in the ballroom at Tohisoo Manor. Juss Heinsalu plays "Piano Lesson" by Estonian composer Ando Ram Varres, while chairs are being cleared after the artists' presentations.

First Kohila firing unpacked

2011-07-16T18:00:00.002+02:00

First things out

Andres Allik

Marc Lancet,s and my pieces lightly fused

All eyes and all cameras on "Mr Zapp" by Urmas Puhkan

Urmas and his portrait of Mr Walter Zapp, the inventor of the spy camera

The whole group

Spider cup

Blowing wheat bran into the kiln

2011-07-14T14:11:00.001+02:00

Blowing wheat bran into the kiln, originally uploaded by woodfirer.

Firing today - now with added wheat bran

2011-07-13T16:08:00.003+02:00

The bran is sucked up and blown into the kiln

Today things are hotting up, cone 11 is bending in front (4pm) and an hour ago wheat bran was blown into the kiln for about 5 minutes. As a special feature, shredded Estonian banknotes, which had been withdrawn from circulation at the beginning of this year when the Euro was introduced, were added to the mix.

The greenish shreds are the former Estonian kroon notes

The firing will be finished this evening round about 8pm.

Packing and firing...

2011-07-13T14:46:00.002+02:00

Packing the kiln on Monday - the two round pots in front are mine

Andres Allik - Kilnmaster

After the kiln was packed and sealed all went for a walk to a nearby "High Fen" - an ancient spagnum bog with unique botany and biology.

Insect-eating plants

Spider in the moss guarding her eggs

Then we swam in the deep, brown, warm bog pool....at 11.00pm

Tall pots and round pots

2011-07-09T20:53:00.000+02:00

We are on day 5 of the Kohila Symposium and a great deal of clay has been transformed into works ready for loading the kiln on Monday. Drying was impeded today by thundershowers, but an improvised heated room will help dry things out overnight.

Tall pots assembled from thrown sections

This will be a large round pot

This is the kiln whose gaping maw will be filled on monday - six days after work started.

First Estonian spider cup

2011-07-08T23:18:00.001+02:00

First Estonian spider cup, originally uploaded by woodfirer.

Head by Sergei Isupov

2011-07-05T19:41:00.001+02:00

Head by Sergei Isupov, originally uploaded by woodfirer.

This fine head is above the front door of Tohisoo Manor - it was fired in the anagama kiln. The firings are relatively short, and do not give a great build-up of ash on the work - and the clay we are using is quite resistant to ash runs anyway.

There are many storks in Kohila

2011-07-05T19:33:00.002+02:00

Yesterday I arrived in Estonia to take part in the 11th Kohila Symposium, which is held at Tohisoo Manor, Kohila and which will include two firings of the Anagama kiln.

Southwold exhibition

2011-06-24T16:27:00.002+02:00

On the sea-front

It was a grey and rainy day

Southwold flint wall

The gallery, prior to setting up the exhibition

Spider lino-cuts, beautifully mounted by Rammeri in Gentofte

A flock of bowls

Runny ash glaze from the juniper wood we used in Flagstaff

New spider cups for the show in Southwold

2011-06-10T15:53:00.001+02:00

These cups came out of the kiln today - they will lighten up amongst the darker woodfired cups from Flagstaff. The exhibition in Southwold opens tomorrow week. We fly to London on tuesday.

2011-05-19T19:29:00.000+02:00

Everything survived the trans-Atlantic trip, and the pots are now waiting in London to be further sorted in preparation for the exhibition in Southwold in June. I'll be flying back to London on the 15th June, and will set up the exhibition on the 17th.
I have started on making a group of bowls and a group of cups - my usual clay (porcelain from Valentines of Stoke-on-Trent) seems so white and slippery to work with after the clay I was using in Flagstaff.

Flying home

2011-05-10T02:28:00.000+02:00

I am writing in Phoenix Airport on my way home to Denmark, via London, where I will land at 13.05 tomorrow. The pots I am taking home are in a hard suitcase packed with masses of bubblewrap, so they should survive the journey. Three particularly favourite ones are in my hand luggage.
A quantity of "refire category" pots have been left in Flagstaff.
There was new snow on the San Francisco Peaks this morning - right down to the outskirts of the town, and a hailstorm as the shuttle bus left for Phoenix.

Today's kiln opening

2011-05-07T08:12:00.002+02:00

Jason and Eugene unbricking the door

First glimpse

Jason's pots

Eugene's stack

Spider close up

One bowl of the 70 or so

More photos when they have been taken with proper lighting etc.
Tomorrow - The Grand Canyon!

Kiln opening today!

2011-05-06T17:42:00.001+02:00

This morning at 10 we start to unload the Caternary kiln: last night the bricks of the door were still very hot to the touch - I hope the cold Flagstaff night temperature will have cooled them right down.

A series of sawdust fired pots are already finished.

Visiting Don Reitz

2011-05-05T03:43:00.004+02:00

Today Paula Rice drove to Cottonwood to visit Don Reitz with graduating students, Eugene Brosseau and Candice Methe from NAU Ceramics. I was fortunate to be in the party as well....
Eugene's blog about the visit here.

Don Reitz

Outside the studio

Inside

Walking down to see the kilns - Eugene, Paula, Don and Candice

Gable wall of the kiln shed

Don's train

Eugene, Candice and Don beside the anagama chimney

Looking out across the river

Don's porch

Firing

2011-05-03T04:42:00.006+02:00

A good thing about wood firing is that you get to be outdoors for hours on end, instead of being crouched indoors unaware of the weather. Today the sun was very hot, but in the wind and in the shadows it was cold - it will be below freezing tonight -8 centigrade (18F) and yet rise to 20 degrees (67F) tomorrow....

Seen around the NAU kilns today:

Wood for the firing - juniper - arrives

Potter's dog 1 - "Mona"

Potter's dog 2 - "Able"

Wadding

Jason Hess packing

Eugene Brosseau

Fire lit at 2pm

Kiln side conversation - Eugene and Steve Schæffer

Sunday spiders

2011-05-02T03:12:00.000+02:00

A peaceful Sunday working at the Ceramic Studio - first I lifted these two little pots out of the sawdust "kiln" - they are so glossy, without any buffing up or polishing.

Then I made another lino cut and printed it, and continued with pen and ink drawings until I had no more paper left to draw on. Then biked back to the little house to make some supper.

Lino cuts

2011-04-30T03:26:00.002+02:00

Today I have started lino cuts and I am aiming for the prints on paper to echo the decoration on cups and bowls.

I have four squares of lino - and today did a trial print of the first one.

Cups and bowls on the way to the final bisque firing this morning

Last day of decorating

2011-04-29T05:19:00.000+02:00

Ready for the firing

Today's spiders

NAU's raku kiln this evening

Friday off

2011-04-23T18:27:00.003+02:00

On friday I drove with Paula Rice to Wupatki National Monument and Sunset Crater

The San Francisco Peaks, from the roadside on the way to Sunset Crater

Flowers in the lava field

Ponderosa pine

The incredible stillness of Wupatki

Wonderful, recently-found pot, one of two found when eroding lava uncovered a little of the surface.

"....Rich Rogers happened to see a small piece of pottery exposed at the bottom of a gully created in a slope of volcanic cinders."

Read the whole account here

Near the rim of the pot one can see holes which had been drilled in order bind a crack tightly together and prevent it developing further.

Wupatki pueblo

Weathered rocks at Wupatki

More spiders today

2011-04-21T03:02:00.001+02:00

First another view of the NAU Ceramic Complex kilnyard - gas and raku kilns where there is a lot of firing taking place as end of term approaches.

Here are the day's spiders and the book that inspired them - bought in Old Tampa Book Company Tampa, Florida. Unfortunately, it is an English book ("A Book of Spiders" King Penguin 1947) so they are all spiders of the British Isles, but that will perhaps suit the public when they are exhibited in Southwold, England, in June. (see gallery here)

Spiders!

2011-04-20T02:19:00.000+02:00

Today I finally drew some spiders and found it particularly satisfying. Their long, hairy legs filled the cup shape well. Meanwhile, the work table is filling up again - the rear right side bowls are the newly-bisqued, now lightly glazed. Those in front left are yesterday and today's production. Still only 68 in all......100 seems a long way off. (I had had the idea to do 100) But

I think the group is big enough, allowing for some losses. For my last week of making I am going to do more illustrated cups and then some lino cuts.

2 cups decorated...

2011-04-19T18:02:00.000+02:00

Insect cup

"Home Comforts"

"Home Comforts" other side

Both cups are now in a bisque firing

Beetle from Missoula Potsketch Auction and ants for cups

2011-04-17T20:41:00.001+02:00

http://www.theclaystudioofmissoula.org/pages/potsketch.html
This is my contribution to the Potsketch on-line Auction, which culminates next weekend with a fund-raising event in Missoula.

I have been drawing and painting ants prior to engraving, or carving them on cups: it helps to have drawn them a few times and to have sorted out just how many legs they have...

I have also seen some fine old trucks around Flagstaff, such as this one, parked on LeRoux Street. I am planning to do some linocuts of them.

Now insects are getting put onto cups

2011-04-16T06:35:00.001+02:00

Most of the work I have made over the past 10 days was being bisque fired today. The little studio seemed very empty. The time has come to decorate large cups - here with a cucumber beetle....spiders will come on tomorrow perhaps.

Workshop with Adrian Arleo

2011-04-14T06:29:00.000+02:00

Today and tomorrow Adrian Arleo from Lolo, Montana, is giving a workshop at NAU. Already the seated female figure she started in her demonstration this morning (smaller in scale than her usual work) has life and intensity - see more about her here

Tuesday

2011-04-13T17:29:00.000+02:00

My work so far

Today I decorated this pinched and coiled pot.

Paula Rice's hand-building class in the Clay Lab next to my workplace have been working on a "Dowel" project - to build a piece supported by dowels, which are removed as the piece stiffens. Here are two of the students with their work -in-progress.

Jeff Urdang and his work

Jordan Nelo Pina and his work

Monday

2011-04-12T04:36:00.006+02:00

The work table is getting quite crowded. The larger pinched forms in the foreground are going to be cups, to be decorated with insects from the Tampa book, and will probably be salt glazed.
I am making the round pinched pots in many different clays, but the pinched bowls are all in porcelain (so far).

On my way home in the evening I always seem to have to stop for a train: they no longer hoot as they did when I was here in 2006, but lights flash and bells ring and it is definitely not a good idea to "stop on the tracks".

PS. The snow has almost entirely disapeared!

The snow came!

2011-04-09T22:17:00.002+02:00

The bike

Back yard

Patio table

Today, instead of forcing the snowdrifts, I am staying home and exploring "Fundamentals of Insect Life" Metcalf and Flint 1932, bought in Tampa for $15.

Drawing each example in pencil, pen and ink and in watercolour.

I have a drawing of a beetle (a stagbeetle) on the Clay Studio of Missoula's Potsketch Auction:

See the auction on line here

Friday

2011-04-09T05:12:00.000+02:00

The amount of snow that had fallen in the night was rather disappointing...after the dramatic forecasts

The ride from where I am staying to the NAU Ceramic Complex only takes about 15 minutes. This morning it was a wet and cold affair. Why do mountain bikes have no mudguards?

Decorating and making continued, I also threw some mugs before the day's class arrived at 12.30.

Jason Hess was grinding and sanding his recently fired work today - providing a reminder of the wonderful surfaces in store when we fire the wood kiln later this month. See more of his work here

Thursday with the temperature dropping..

2011-04-08T03:27:00.001+02:00

The weather forecast for Flagstaff is dramatically threatening with warnings of wind and snow today, tomorrow and Saturday, but so far the sun continues to shine and the temperature is bearable.
Meanwhile, at the NAU ceramic studio throughout the day large groups of students occupy the wheels, and highlighted on the blackboard is the word: CRAFTSMANSHIP!

My wedging bench with posters from brought back from NCECA - advertising the somewhat mysterious WILDCLAY.ORG
See here

Here are some of the group of pinched bowls I have made so far - today I started to decorate them.

The rest of day 2

2011-04-06T06:39:00.000+02:00

First day's pots drying in the Arizona sun and dry air

Then different terra sigillatas painted on and polished

And then I got on to the porcelain and started pinching bowls

Kilns at NAU

2011-04-05T21:01:00.000+02:00

The Double Train

Caternary kilns with shared chimney - Soda kiln on the right

My plan is to fire in one of the caternary kilns - probably without soda. If the soda kiln is fired while I am here I will make thrown work for it - I prefer the pinched bowls and pots without the extra shine soda gives.

The air is so dry here that work dries very quickly, so that I can decorate the pinched pots I made yesterday this afternoon - they are almost bone dry. I have made 4 different terra sigillatas to try on them.

Day One - Monday - continued

2011-04-05T05:21:00.000+02:00

Although this blog says it is tuesday, it is in fact still monday, as my computer is running on Danish time!

Flagstaff station with the shadow of the mountainbiker

Kilnyard with gas kilns

The day's production

In a secondhand bookshop in Tampa I bought a wonderfully inspiring insect book, and at NCECA i acquired a trial pack of Keraflex paper-thin tiles

Ceramic Studio among the pines

Day One of Residency

2011-04-05T05:04:00.000+02:00

Today is the first day of my residency at NAU (Northern Arizona University) Flagstaff.
I arrived in Flagstaff on Saturday night and spent Sunday settling in to my little cottage on North Beaver Street, walking round downtown Flagstaff, and trying out the mountain bike which comes with the cottage.

Downtown Flagstaff

Residency cottage

I flew into Phoenix from Tampa, Florida, where I had been attending the NCECA Conference but that is another story....

Delivering work to "Kunstindustrimuseet"

2011-03-16T20:24:00.005+01:00

Today I delivered salt pots, bowls and small vases to the Kunstindustrimuseet's shop. As I will be away from Denmark for two months (Leaving next week) I reckoned they needed to stock up. It was a fine, clear, cold morning on Bredgade.

Bredgade, the Kunstindustrimuseet is on the left.

I cycled to the station and then took the "S" train into town with a basket of pots.

Two salt pots and a bowl on show in the museum's restaurant, looking into Gronnegaarden.

Three lightholders

More photos from "1000 Bowls"

2011-03-11T13:38:00.002+01:00

In 1997 I exhibited1000 pinched bowls in Galerie Besson , London.

All the surfaces in the gallery were covered with bowls

They were sold directly from the show - there was no way of keeping track by numbers as people were encouraged to pick them up and move them round.

Looking at the pictures now (after 13 years) I can still find my favourites.

These were definitely favourites

The door of Galerie Besson in the Royal Arcade, Old Bond Street

Speckely and stripey bowls

A year later, in 1999, I exhibited some bowls in the town of Haderslev, Jutland

More historic photos...

2011-03-07T22:01:00.000+01:00

1000 Bowls - exhibited in 1996 in Rundetårn, Copenhagen, and in 1997 in Galerie Besson, London

Detail, checked bowls - 1000 bowls - no two alike

More bowls

And more

And a short flirtation with low fire terrasiggilata, fired in a bucket of sawdust
About 2002

Nina Hole's exhibition The Matchbox Show "Friends and Firemates"

2011-03-02T14:17:00.004+01:00

Nina Hole has invited all those who have worked with her or fired with her over the years, to send her a tiny piece of their work in a matchbox from their country. Here is my matchbox. It is from Kenya, not South Africa.

When I was a child I often used empty matchboxes to take beetles found in the veld home. I found a dead scarab beetle when we were in Kenya last year and brought it back to Denmark in a "Rhino" brand matchbox I picked up nearby.

For the Matchbox Show I have made three thin porcelain tablets which pack away into the matchbox, featuring different types of dung beetle, from Mexico and Colombia.

The exhibition opens on Saturday.

Some bowls from the last firing

2011-02-26T19:25:00.003+01:00

These bowls are all from the last firing (packed when the temperature was minus 10 degrees centigrade) of the Bourry Box kiln - Skælskør Express at Guldagergaard.

They will be part of the exhibition I am having at "Craftco", Suffolk, UK in June.

These little pots are all thrown, not pinched. The one in front fired under the hobs - buried in the coals.

Scanned early photographs..

2011-02-25T13:34:00.000+01:00

In 1965, 19 years old, I left South Africa, my birthplace.

Throwing at Morar Pottery, Morar, Invernessshire - about 1967

I moved to remote Morar on the west coast of Scotland, and rented a huge workshop, formerly a training centre, from The "Highland Home Industries". From the wheel I had a view over the Morar River's estuary, which filled and emptied with the tide. The work I made was sold in the chain of craft shops the HHI ran in the Highlands and in Edinburgh.

I moved to London in 1968

Throwing jug on kickwheel, Greenwich Studios, London, about 1970

I rented the first floor of Greenwich Studios, a victorian shop building at the bottom of Blackheath Hill, from Alan Wallwork, who had moved his pottery to Somerset. Here I produced quantities of once-fired "medieval" loving cups for a restuarant in St Martins Lane. Saving all the money from this enabled me to buy the Magpie, a former pub on the Suffolk - Norfolk border.

Same kick wheel, Magpie, Fersfield, Norfolk. 1976

On the wheel: coffee cups and coffee pots for David Mellor Shop, Sloane Square, London

My workshop was in an old stable, and the same self-built wheel produced quantities of teapots, coffeepots and 100's of candlesticks - the biggest seller.

I sold the Magpie in 1980, after I had moved to Denmark.

Carla Stine Jørsum (DK)

2011-02-09T23:56:00.001+01:00

Carla Stine Jørsum (DK), originally uploaded by woodfirer.

Crista Ames and her work "Between Walls"

2011-02-09T23:53:00.001+01:00

Crista Ames and her work "Between Walls", originally uploaded by woodfirer.

Lauren Winstone (NZ)

2011-02-09T23:51:00.001+01:00

Lauren Winstone (NZ), originally uploaded by woodfirer.

This evening I went to Guldagergaard to the opening of the Network 2011 Show.
Great work!

Kiln emptied today

2011-01-30T23:34:00.000+01:00

Today I drove down to Guldagergaard to fetch my work from the Bourry Box firing.
It was a fine firing, I will post pictures of the work of my co-firers when they have their exhibition set up at the end of next week. In the meantime, here are some of my bowls from the firing - all pinched porcelain. All about 13 X 8cms.

After looking at all the work, Crista, Hanne, Lauren, Sara and I went out beyond Borreby and saw a field of swans and geese

First dinner, then the firing was over....

2011-01-27T23:07:00.001+01:00

First the stokers took turns to eat dinner with the rest of the Guldagergaard residents, then we were ready for the final stoke

Crista Ames clad to stoke the final stoke, which was a full-firebox reduction stoke with the damper closed after 15 minutes!
Much smoke!

GOOD NIGHT!

Firing in minus degrees at Guldagergaard

2011-01-27T17:14:00.004+01:00

The temperature last night was minus 10 degrees centigrade by the time we had finished packing the kiln: "Networkers" seen here are from left: Andrew Parker (UK) Paul Reid (UK) and Crista Ames (USA). See more pictures of the Network Project here

The kiln was tended all night by Andrew, Paul and Stephen and was ready to start climbing in temperature this morning after the slow pre-heat they had controlled while warming themselves round a oil-drum brazier.

Hanne Mannheimer (SE/UK) Lauren Winstone (NZ) and Crista Ames (USA) plan the day's stoking

We are firing with ash and pine wood
The kiln is the "Skælskør Express" built by Robert Sanderson in 1999.

Lunch in Marc Lancet's oribe bowls

Noodles by the kiln

All the ash wood has to be cut to size (Richard Saaby operating the saw)

The kiln is now at 1280, cones are falling and we will be finished by dinner time

New Year Plans

2011-01-15T19:02:00.001+01:00

Back garden -when the sun shines....

Our winter is being long, dark and snowy this year. So it is a good time now to plan ahead and get going on the year's projects.

Firstly, a firing in the Bourry Box kiln "Skælskør Express" at Guldagergaard, sometime later this month. I will be filling and firing it with a few of the current group of "Network" participants.

At the end of March I am going to attend the NCECA conference in Tampa, Florida, and from there fly to Phoenix, Arizona, travelling on to Flagstaff, where I am going to work in the Ceramic Dept of NAU for a month or so.

The kilns at NAU are a great attraction: In 2006 I had 3 or 4 pieces in the firings before the conference - "20 + 1 Years of the Tozan Kilns", and the special quality of the pieces I took home with me continued to remind me that here was a place I wanted to go back to.

The four pieces I exhibited during the conference are now part of the fine Macy Collection, which was on exhibition in the NAU Art Gallery at the end of last year.

Nobirigama kiln at NAU

Double Train kiln at NAU

I hope to produce new work which will form the basis of two exhibitions: one in England in 2012 and two in South Africa, at the end of 2011 and the beginning of 2012.

Christmas Sale is over for this year....

2010-12-12T14:05:00.000+01:00

The Christmas Sale / Julestue went off well yesterday and there was an endless run of people up and down the stairs to the big studio. Much was sold, and on tuesday I will deliver the remaining light holders and planes and cars to the Kunstindustrimuseet shop, so they can be sold before Christmas.

Lightholders, and, in front, Pernille's clothes peg angels

New postcards came just in time for the Christmas Sale.

Planes and cars hanging on a whittled tree

Getting ready for the Christmas Sale - Forberedelserne til Julestue

2010-12-03T12:13:00.000+01:00

CHRISTMAS SALE / JULESTUE

PRISCILLA MOURITZEN

Vejlesøvej 37a

2840 Holte

Denmark

December 11 kl12-18

See map / Se kort: http://map.krak.dk/m/IElQp

Cars and planes....Biler og flymaskiner....

Snow outside! Sne udenfor!

Plenty of bowls.....Masser af skåle...

Tiny woodfired vase. Lille brændefyret vase

And one more. Og èn til.

Invitation to Julestue distributed

2010-11-30T23:48:00.000+01:00

Christmas Sale preparations

2010-11-29T23:30:00.001+01:00

Tea-light holders lined up...

Two leopard-spotty mugs

Snow and now planning Christmas Sale

2010-11-28T20:24:00.000+01:00

The garden is filled to the brim with snow, and there is no traffic passing in the road, but still I plan with confidence a "Julestue" - Christmas Sale on the 11th and 12th of December. Surely this extreme winter weather can't last til then!

Back home and to work....

2010-10-06T17:06:00.002+02:00

Benirrama in the morning sunlight

The Great Mosque, Còrdoba

Back home yesterday from nine days in Spain, it is time to get down to work.

European Woodfire Conference, Bröllin, Germany

2010-09-07T17:32:00.001+02:00

Bröllin at night - Polish movable kiln firing

Meeting point Bröllin - Prof. Isah Bolaj Kashim, James Kasper and Willi Singleton

David Tzdrazil, Shannon Sullivan, Michal Puszczynski and Gregory Miller's hands. In the background, Janne Heick

My tall pot from the latest firing on a window sill in Schloss Bröllin

Gregory Miller's pots on top of the stove in the same room

The conference - three intense days of listening, speaking, meeting and looking. It will take some time to go through all the impressions... I will write about it before I go to Bornholm for the Ceramic Biennale and Baltic Woodfire Event which starts on friday.

Flaming chimneys

2010-08-28T14:31:00.002+02:00

Towards the end of the three day firing

As usual, the Olsen kiln did not disappoint us, providing a fine show of flaming chimneys under the new moon. There was a great team of packers and stokers, led by Richard Saaby, and, for the early morning shifts, wonderful sunrises.

Raoul Swahn from Sweden

Richard stoking

Richard viewing cones

Sunrise over the kilnyard, 6am

Firing the Olsen Cross-Draught kiln

2010-08-26T23:21:00.001+02:00

I am taking part in a firing of the Cross Draught kiln at Guldagergaard - it is now the second night of the firing and the temperature is evening out throughout the kiln: cones are falling as they should, we have just had an "Open Evening" by the kiln for local residents, about 70 people came by to see the fun. I have a half shift tonight from midnight to 3am as the two people on the shift are relatively in-experienced firers.

Meanwhile, in the studio,Hikaru Nakata continues to throw his wonderful teapots.

He is going to exhibit them in Butik for Borddækning in Copenhagen in November.

Guldagergaard comes to Holte

2010-07-22T23:22:00.002+02:00

The current residents of Guldagergaard came up to town this week and were kind enough to deliver the few pieces I had in the last firing of the Bourry Box kiln.

Few and not spectacular - but some good pointers for the next firing, loading monday of next week.

They all enjoyed lunch at Sten Lykke Madsen's house - he lives five minutes away from where I do (when he is not in residence at Guldagergaard). Here is one of his works in the garden.

Henrik, Jen Woodin and Ane Fabricius Christensen

Elsa Naveda from Xalapa, Mexico

Hikaru Nakata

2010-06-26T12:38:00.002+02:00

Yesterday's firing was enlivened by this very tame baby blackbird which took over Nina's apple. It had been hatched out in a nest on a shelf between kiln props, and both baby and mother were used to a lot of activity around them.

Nina Hole side stoking

Firing resumes - at last!

2010-06-25T10:16:00.000+02:00

The firing of the train kiln at Guldagergaard started last night and I am on my way down to join the team for the last hours...

New post

2010-05-26T20:59:00.000+02:00

Well, that firing never took place, as the main participants cancelled.
I have started a big re-think of what I am doing - ways of making, types of clay, types of firing, potential of selling etc etc.
I have the urge to make few and big pots.
Instead, I have been happily throwing many, many small cups on the kick wheel in porcelain clay. 300 or so so far.

Firing tomorrow

2010-04-27T10:50:00.000+02:00

Tomorrow I am going down to Skælskør to add small kiln-filler pots to a firing of the Bourry Box kiln - Skælskør Express.

One way of getting back into the swing of things, after a longish period of non-woodfiring - when I have been making insect cups and bowls which I could not risk to the blanket-effect carbon-trapping the kiln is justly famous for. But now I have the urge to try saggar firing - not in this next firing - (no room for bulky saggars), but soon I will be firing much-drawn-on work in the wood kiln, in saggars, still trying for the elusive "something" to lift them from the banal.....

Clay Studio of Missoula "Potsketch" 2010

2010-04-10T23:25:00.001+02:00

The Clay Studio of Missoula's Potsketch - auction is now on-line.
I drew my sketch in Nairobi - took the Potsketch pack of pencil and square of paper with me to Africa and drew a leather-covered Masai calabash. Brought the drawing back to Denmark and posted it off to Montana.
See them all here:http://www.theclaystudioofmissoula.org/pages/potsketch

More from "Dis/Arming Domesticity"

2010-04-06T08:49:00.002+02:00

"Dis/Arming Domesticity" Curator: Gail Brown

Watch a video of it here

A whole wall of pinchpots by Melissa Mytty: "Cups and Saucers".

Ceramic "joinery" by Sarah Lindley:

Faces from NCECA and a pair of feet

2010-04-05T18:57:00.003+02:00

At the Davenport Gallery, Wayne Art Center, Wayne, PA (until April 10)

Esther Shimazu

and Curt LaCross who writes: "I fabricate pieces that characterize the human condition"

shown at the exhibition “Portraiture Beyond Likeness.” curated by Jo Lauria

At the Duke Gallery, Community Art Center until April 23

A masterly figure by Tip Toland

part of the exhibition: "Dis/Arming Domesticity" Curator: Gail Brown

Watch a video of it here

Unbelievable feet! Or rather - hugely believable....!

And disturbing and moving figures by Anne Drew Potter from the same exhibition.

Museum Exhibition

2010-03-29T17:15:00.003+02:00

What is nice about exhibiting in a museum is seeing your work rubbing up against the museum's permanent collections, and the museal way pieces look locked away behind glass - untouchable in the rather hushed museum atmosphere. Quite different to the gallery or Open Studio situation.

Yesterday the exhibition at the Washington County Museum of the Arts in Hagerstown opened - it will run until September.

In an adjacent gallery are two small Henry Moore bronze maquettes.

And in the gallery itself are two splendid sandstone figures framing a doorway.

"The Wise and Foolish Virgins (1947), two sandstone sculptures by the Belgian sculptor Ernest Van Wijnants (1878–1964), stand watch at the entrance to the gallery. The figure of the wise virgin holds out a lamp while the foolish virgin covers hers with a chained hand."

My work is immediately on the right of one of these figures and I really enjoyed it's proximity.

I also liked the dramatic effect of lit display cases in the dark-walled gallery.
My work in the two cases on the left, Sten Lykke Madsen's on the right.

Beetles on cups

2010-03-27T16:06:00.002+01:00

Here is a sequence of my beetle drawings, on paper, on cups, and two of the original models from the Natural History Museum.

I have a cup with me here in Maryland which I am going to put in to the NCECA Cup Sale. IN 2005 I was lucky enough to win one of the "Cup Sale Award"s at NCECA and saw my cup (decorated with termites) suddenly projected full-screen at the Final Members Meeting.

Exhibitions continued

2010-03-24T15:05:00.025+01:00

These are two bowls made with Markus Böhm's porcelain which he sent me to try in the last firing of the Olsen Kiln at Guldagergaard - now they are on exhibition in Maryland!

Joyce Michaud outside the Gallery

Firstly, more photos from the exhibition at Howard Community College, seen above, and then some from the setting up of the exhibition at Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Hagerstown which opens on Sunday at 2:30pm. The museum itself opens at 12 noon and at 1:30pm there will be a recital.

Joyce Michaud is the curator of the exhibition which includes work by 6 artists

"Hand Thrown: The Fine Art of Pinched and Coiled Ceramics".

Mary Bowron (USA)

Sten Lykke Madsen (DK)

Joyce Michaud (USA)

Priscilla Mouritzen (DK)

Kristin Muller (USA)

Toni Ross (USA)

Joyce placing her pieces

Kristin Muller

Three of my pinch pots

The town of Hagerstown seen from the museum.

Exhibition at Howard Community College

2010-03-24T02:37:00.001+01:00

Exhibition at Howard Community College, originally uploaded by woodfirer.

The exhibtion at Howard Community College, Columbia, Maryland, looks very elegant and is well lit.

Sten 2009

2010-03-15T21:01:00.001+01:00

Sten 2009, originally uploaded by woodfirer.

Sten Lykke Madsen looking satisfied with the results of the firing of his works in the Olsen Cross Draught Kiln, Guldagergaard, 2009

Program for the coming weeks

2010-03-15T11:25:00.001+01:00

Here is the program for the first part of my US trip which starts on Wednesday - 17th March.

Sten Lykke Madsen is not going to be making the trip but his sensational works are in all 3 exhibitions and I will have a film of him working to show at the workshops.

Program of Exhibitions and Workshops.

Priscilla Mouritzen and Sten Lykke Madsen

Hood College,

401 Rosemont Avenue

Frederick, MD 21701

Exhibition Denmark Clay: Imagery & Emotion in Ceramic Art. Priscilla Mouritzen and Sten Lykke Madsen in Hodson Gallery from March 7 - April 4, 2010.

A reception will be held March 19 from 6:00 - 7:00 pm and will be followed by an evening lecture open to the general public at 7:00pm.

The Hood College Ceramic Arts Program look forward to a two day course/workshop presented by Priscilla Mouritzen March 20-21, 2010, entitled Denmark Clay: Imagery & Emotion in Ceramic Art.

Washington County Art Museum

City Park,

Hagerstown, MD 21741

Priscilla Mouritzen and Sten Lykke Madsen are also taking part in an exhibition at the Washington County Art Museum’s Fulton Gallery entitled Hand Thrown: The Fine Art of Pinched and Coiled Ceramics. The exhibition will be on display from March 28 - September 5, 2010.

Exhibition opening events and reception will be held Sunday, March 28, with a viewing of the exhibition from 2:30-3:30 p.m. and gallery talk by Priscilla Mouritzen at 3:00.

The exhibition will run until September 7, 2010.

Howard County Community College

10901 Little Patuxent Parkway, Columbia, MD

Sten Lykke Madsen and Priscilla Mouritzen are participating in an exhibition at Howard County Community College in Columbia, Maryland. Refined Naivity - The Ceramic Art of Sten Lykke Madsen and Priscilla Mouritzen.

Priscilla Mouritzen will present a workshop for the HCC students on March 25-26 and the work will be exhibited in the Art Department Gallery Horowitz Visual and Performing Arts Center 230C Howard Community College

The exhibition runs from March 4, 2010 until April 14, 2010.

A reception will be held on March 18, 2010, 5:00-7:00pm and will include a gallery talk at 6:15 pm.

And then NCECA!

Delivering work

2010-03-05T10:44:00.002+01:00

Yesterday I delivered small eranthis vases to the Kunstindustrimuseet's shop in Copenhagen. Here is the courtyard of the museum still with a smattering of snow.

In the foyer of the museum stands this splendid raku vase by Per Weiss

Here are the some of the eranthis vases, and here two lovely porcelain teapots made by Christian Bruun on sale in the shop.

Blue sky in Copenhagen yesterday

The first sign of spring...

2010-03-01T14:08:00.001+01:00

Seen yesterday in the back garden

Today I am working on pinched porcelain cups with decoration based on the insects I saw in the Darwin Centre, and some beetles from Kenya. Perhaps there will be a cup for the NCECA Cup Sale amongst them...

At the V & A

2010-02-26T14:41:00.002+01:00

I am catching up once more with the blog, having sent off work to the US for the 3 exhibitions I will be a part of this Spring.

I would like to show these photos taken at speed in the newly re-opened ceramic galleries at the V & A Museum in London during my one-day London stopover recently.

First of all: Bernard Leach -

The V & A collections and a particularly a Hans Coper and Peter Collingwood exhibition which I saw when I was living and working in London in the late 1960's have remained vividly etched in my memory.

Galerie Besson put on a Collingwood + Coper exhibition exhibition last year - 40 years after the V & A show.

The pot on the left and theblack one on the right are from 1968, and were probably in that show. Sorry about the glass reflection......

William Staite Murray was someone I looked up to and his tall pots got me making toweringly thrown wobbly pots in my first workshop in Morar, Invernessshire in the 60's.

Gillian Lowndes - then, as now, an inspiration.

What I saw in Africa (short version)

2010-02-14T14:08:00.007+01:00

Elephants in Amboseli National Park

Just back from 2 weeks in Kenya I think it was the 100's of elefants and the hyenas we saw in Amboseli and the frightful traffic in Nairobi that made the most impact. And of course the birds... huge birds...Maribou storks and eagles in the trees in the centre of Nairobi.

"Project Network" 2010 at Guldagergaard

2010-02-13T18:16:00.000+01:00

Guldagergaard

Apple House Gallery with heads by Akio Takamori

Annalisa Guerri, Italy

Pauliina Pöllänen, Finland

Louise Heisel, Denmark

Yesterday the Danish Minister of Culture, Carina Christensen, opened the exhibition "Project Network 2010" at Guldagergaard, Skælskør.

Natural History Museum in London- The Darwin Centre

2010-02-11T22:02:00.001+01:00

I have been on a two-week trip to Kenya, with stopover in London where I visited the The Darwin Centre in the Natural History Museum, opened last year and designed by Anna Maria Indrio of C.F. Møller Architects.

Inside the cocoon...

And some of the exhibits:

Exhibiting in Maryland in March!

2010-01-20T23:46:00.000+01:00

Here are the details of the three exhibitions in Maryland which I am taking part in this spring.

"Denmark Clay: Imagery and Emotion in Ceramic Art"

Priscilla Mouritzen and Sten Lykke Madsen

Hodsen Gallery, Hood College, Frederick Maryland.

Reception: March 19th 6pm - 7pm, evening lecture 7pm

Workshop/Course March 20th - 21st

At the Washington County Art Museum, Hagerstown I have been invited to participate in the exhibition "Hand Thrown: The Fine Art of Pinched and Coiled Ceramics" curated by Joyce Michaud. Opening Sunday 28th March 2.30 - 3.30.

And finally an exhibition and workshop at Howard County Community College in Columbia, Maryland. The exhibition here is called "Refined Naivity" The Ceramic Art of Sten Lykke Madsen and Priscilla Mouritzen. It is open from the 27th February, with reception and gallery talk on the 18th March 5pm - 7pm.

Now the work has to be packed up and sent off!

"Shino Redux" Exhibition - bowl posted today!

2010-01-19T22:12:00.007+01:00

Shino bowl, originally uploaded by woodfirer.

I sent this bowl off today to be part of the exhibition "Shino Redux" at the Clayart Center in Port Chester, NY - opening 6 February

It measures 10cms X 8cms.
SHINO REDUX 2010
February 6 through March 6
Clay Art Center
40 Beech Street
Port Chester, New York

Selecting work to send to 3 exhibitions in Maryland

2010-01-08T17:22:00.002+01:00

In february I will be packing and sending work to the US for three exhibitions. So now I am looking at the pieces I have ready and am trying to select which should go where.

Julie Malen (USA)

2009-12-11T16:49:00.001+01:00

Julie Malen (USA), originally uploaded by woodfirer.

At the opening of the "Network 2009" show at Guldagergaard, Julie Malen discusses her piece "Roses before Swine" with Danish artist, Betty Engholm.

More from "Network 2009" at Guldagergaard

2009-12-11T13:17:00.008+01:00

"Network 2009" is a six-week residency program for young ceramic artists, which is held each year at the

International Ceramic Research Center - Guldagergaard in Skælskør, Denmark.

Here are some images from the opening of the exhibition in the AppleHouse Gallerylast night:

Harriet Thomas (UK)

Harriet writes about her work:

"This work is a response to the new situations that I have found myself in of late. I

am especially concerned with human interaction and cultural idiosyncracies and I

have combined these interests with my love of ancient and architectural structure,tocreate pieces that challenge the viewer, making them question their preconceptions about ceramic art.

I have been woodfiring as it is an extension of the making process, the pieces are

still able to change and take on their own character, influenced by the flame rather than the hand."

Ieva Bertasiute (Lithuania)

"Roses before Swine" - Julie Malen (USA)

2009-12-11T12:47:00.001+01:00

"Roses before Swine" - Julie Malen (USA), originally uploaded by woodfirer.

Last night was the opening of the "Network 2009" Exhibition at Guldagergaard, Skælskør, Denmark. Here is a close-up of Julie Malen's wonderful work: "Roses before Swine"

What I did in Mexico (Short version)

2009-11-13T00:21:00.003+01:00

Here are some pictures from La Ceiba Grafica - where I launched into drawing on the wonderful white Veracruz marble stones with lithographic pencil, crayon and ink - all made at La Ceiba.
These were my subject matter:

Chev, Dodge and also a Ford, Trucks of La Orduna - the village around La Ceiba.

And here are some of the team - printer Daniel Barraza second from right.
We printed on hand-made paper, made at La Ceiba from old hotel linen.

Home from Mexico

2009-11-12T12:20:00.000+01:00

Five weeks in Mexico have come to an end and I am back in Denmark with the need to fix dates for the Christmas Studio Sale, send out invitations, make more work, all in all get back into my stride instead of staring into space and feeling homesick for La Ceiba, Coatepec, Oaxaca and all the sounds and smells of Mexico....

La Ceiba, morning

Trip to Mexico

2009-10-01T14:38:00.004+02:00

Next week I am leaving for Mexico -on a much anticipated and longed for return visit. I took part in the symposium "Simposio Internacional de Ceramica Escultoria Monumental" in Xalapa, Veracruz, in 2007.
After some days in Mexico City we are flying to Tuxtla, travelling to Palenque, and then making our way to Veracruz and Xalapa where we are due to stay and work at La Ceiba Grafica.

La Ceiba
g
La Ceiba Grafica is housed in the ex-hacienda - La Orduna, just outside the town of Coatepec.