Work for an Anagama firing at Guldagergaard

I had been working towards a firing in the small anagram kiln at Guldagergaard. Pinching, throwing and decorating. I want to have new work ready for my Open Door Covid-style Exhibition and Sale on the 28th and 29th November.

I have bought a Pop-Up tent, so some of the display will be in the open air. My new gallery space is very small so only one or two guests can be inside at the same time, but it has a door to the outside which can stand open, giving a well-ventilated and cold viewing experience!

 

Vases for a wedding table

I made a group of vases for the Long table for the wedding of our granddaughter, Ragna to Troels, which took place in our garden and house on the 22nd August, 2020.

The vases were thrown on a kick wheel at Guldagergaard international Ceramic Center, during the summer open days in the Guldagergaard Park. They were all glazed in different celadon glazes and fired in the Bourry Box Train Kiln, “Skælskør Express” for 15 hours to 1350 degrees centigrade. ( Cone 13) Both porcelain and stoneware clays were used.

Three tall pots

Three wood fired pots recently acquired by a Danish collector of my work. 

Decals from China

I was given a sheet of decals when I was in Lanzhou a year ago and have only now begun to use them: the first time I have ever used decals! The text translates as "The story of Ceramics", the line of camels seems to relate to Dunhuang and the Gobi desert, and the images are taken from from frescoes in the Mogao Caves near Dunhuang.

Some of the cups were wood-fired to 1300C before the decals were applied. The white cups were fired in an electric kiln to 1270C. Once the decals were applied and had dried, they were fired again to 800C.

As I only have one sheet of decals, this is a very limited production of "souvenirs" of the two

months I spent at the Lanzhou City University in 2018 and of our outing to Dunhuang, the desert and the magnificent Mogao Caves.

Firing the Olsen Cross Draught Kiln at Guldagergaard

The giant Olsen Cross Draught Kiln, also known as "Embla", is a special kiln to be a part of the firing crew for: it holds so much (up to 1500 pieces) and as it has two fireboxes and a side-stoke hole there are plenty of places to fill on each firing shift. I was one of the group who fired it in the first week of April, 2019.

Work glazed and wadded

11 women and three men in the group

The kiln

Wood preparation

Pots go to the photographer

10 bowls, pinched porcelain, wood-fired

I took a group of bowls into Frederiksberg to be photographed by Ole Akhøj. He has been photographing my work for more than 20 years.
Other work of mine photographed by Ole can be seen here, also here  and here.
These 10 bowls were all made in my studio in Denmark, but 4 of them were fired in Donovan Palmquist's kiln in Eureka, Minnesota in March 2019, while the other 6 were fired in the Olsen Cross Draught kiln at Guldagergaard in early April 2019.

NCECA Pre-Conference firing at Eureka Pots, Minnesota

Donovan Palmquist

Glazing outside

The kiln 

Two-chambered downdraught with Bourrybox fire boxes for each chamber.

Jack Troy mixing a tenmoku glaze, using black iron oxide

Donovan had been given a large portion of black iron oxide by Warren Mckenzie

Colleen Riley held a session on her methods of surface decoration 

Pots on Colleen's table

This workshop was, in retrospect, one of the most inspiring happenings of the pre-conference. It opened up so many ideas as to how to achieve a more colourful and exciting surface in the wood kiln.

Preparing for two wood-firings

 

Making loads of pots in preparation for two up-coming firings: the first all the way over the Atlantic - NCECA pre-Conference wood firing with Jack Troy at "Eureka Pots", Donovan Palmquist's studio outside Minneapolis, Minnesota.

I return to Denmark on the 2nd April and go to Guldagergaard the day after to get some pots in a firing of the Fred Olsen Cross Draught kiln.