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The freetime potter

Bert J. Wieman

.....................Never a dull moment.....................

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First european woodfire conference

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Nothing better than a woodfire in a kiln ....................................................© STEFFEN BOHL

From 2 until 5 september 2010 the First European Conference for woodfiring ceramists and potters was held in Castle Bröllin, about 100 kilometers north of Berlin, Germany. A perfect location existing of an estate and a large number of nineteenth century buildings that used to be the estates’ farm. Really big barns, quite suitable as studio of exhibition space. In between large courtyards, partially paved. No wonder that this location houses an international centre for art and culture.

The estate ................................© STEFFEN BOHL

One of the courtyards... . .. .. .. .. ..© STEFFEN BOHL

When I arrived here on 1 september around noon, it was obvious that there was still a lot to be arranged. So I put up my tent, jumped in some old cloths and signed in as a helper (and get a t-shirt for free). One of my duties was to help arranging the exhibition space. Nice job because you’ll meet and assist all the people that bring in their pots and objects. About 75 participants had registered for the exhibition, so in one of the big barns a lot of tables were set up.

The exhibition................................© STEFFEN BOHL

Not many participants had arrived yet, besides a group of students from a.o. the Technical College for Ceramics in Halle (Germany). They were splitting wood in one of the barns. The participants that did arrive, were the people from the USA and Australia (all together about 25). They were to take care of most of the lectures, presentations and discussion fora. So that evening I found myself at a table with some well-known people like Janet Mansfield, Paul Davis, Robert Barron, Owen Rye, Fred Olsen, Coll Minogue, Robert Sanderson and Masakazu Kusakabe. Everyone of them very friendly and prepared to answer questions.

Frederick L. Olsen ........................© STEFFEN BOHL

Masakazu Kusakabe

The next day most of the participants arrived, so a lot of work was to be done to set up the exhibition. In the end it was about half of the plusminus 225 participants that had brought their work for the exhibition. So quite a few extra tables had to be set up and pieces had to be put together a little more. Nice to see my own pots between the pieces of all the others.

A.o. my own pots, in the background

In between I spoke quite a few people: where are you from, what do you produce, which type of kiln do you fire etc. And looking around the whole area of course. Everywhere there was some activity. An anagama from the workshop given by Owen Rye was cooling down after being fired for 40 hours. The first kilns were set up or built to be fired during the next days. Raku (a.o. in Ikea dustbins), sawdust pitfire kilns, a kiln of the Phoenix type, a kiln with sawdust injection and others.

Ikea raku kilns

Again Ikea raku kilns

Phoenix-model (contruction box Fa. Sälzer)

Sawdust kiln

Anagama (workshop Owen Rye)

In the mean time I met the other Dutch participants. That afternoon the conference was officially opened by Janet Mansfield and Markus Böhm. Everybody was invited to visit the exhibition. Immediately I sold a small pot and I swapped a vase for one that I liked very much. Again I talked to a lot of people. Striking how many of them have an anagama, or hire or fire this type of kiln at somebody others place. The Netherlands were mentioned in one of the lectures because of the high number of Fred Olsen’s fastfire kilns. Food was good by the way: breakfast buffet, cold or warm lunch and a good warm meal in the evening. Some kilns were fired through the evenings and there was a big bonfire. A good atmosphere everywhere.

The polish mobile kiln................© STEFFEN BOHL

On Friday the first presentations and forum discussions took place. Next days’ discussions were about woodfiring in relation to the environment, aesthetics of woodfiring and woodfiring in the education of ceramics students. Up until sunday there were a lot of presentations, soms individual artists or woodfire related subjects and there were demonstrations of throwing etc. They were so many that I could not attend them all.

A.o. Owen Rye, Coll Minogue........© STEFFEN BOHL

Attention of the audience...............© STEFFEN BOHL

Curious to see that most of the contributions came from the participants from the USA and Australia. I was told that this was because there was hardly any respons from european ceramists to attribute to the conference. Meanwhile there were more kilns being built outside and were fired too. Every day one could watch films, some of which were introduced by the ceramist him(her)self.

Cinema.........................................© STEFFEN BOHL

The students built ten parallel mini anagamas in which ten different types of wood were to be fired during 24 hours. Differences in the results could be judged on sunday afternoon. Below you can see two examples. On saturday night the exhibition was ended and the Log Book Award was given for the work of to the most promising student. Pieces for this contest could be delivered in the previous days en were exhibited too. After cleaning up the exhibition space there was a big dance in the same barn.

Building and loading the mini-anagamas......................................................................© STEFFEN BOHL

Explanation....................................© STEFFEN BOHL

Different types of wood ................© STEFFEN BOHL

Firing the mini-anagamas

Also at night.................................© STEFFEN BOHL

Opening of the mini_anagamas

Results pine...................................© STEFFEN BOHL

Results chestnut...........................© STEFFEN BOHL

The exhibition was open for non-participants as well. Several pieces went straight to a gallery after the exhibition.

Despite the fact that only recently one of the organizers had had a serious accident, the organisation as a whole was very well-done. All the discussions were translated in English or German if you used one of the headsets. If a film was introduced by someone, there was a translator as well. There were some tables where one could buy books or magazines. In the end, I sold and swapped a few pots and of course bought a few. After hearing the comments on my work I am a bit proud for the appreciation.

On sunday afternoon a lot of non-used firebricks were sold for little money, so I loaded my car to hit the road back home with no money left in my pocket. But first I had to lend a few euros to buy a cd with 500 photos of the whole event from Steffen Bohl, a photographer who was present all these days. So it was useless to attend the auction where they sold the bricks of all the kilns (by monday all had to be cleaned).

A kiln from the kiln building contest

Looking back this conference was a very special event to me. Especially the good atmosphere, the forbearence amongst each other (famous or not, professsional of freetime potter like me) plus the fact that there was so much to learn, made these days taste like more. Even though this conference was named ‘the first european’, yet no other european country has stepped forward to organize the second one. Alas.

Part of the exhibition

Participants per country:
Germany       110            Nigeria         3
USA                17            Frankrijk        3
Australia         11            South-Afrika    2
Denmark 7             Canada       2
Estonia             7            Spain          2
Ireland             7            Poland            2
Czech rep.         5            Austria 2
Netherlands      4            Japan             2
Switserland      4            England        2
Litouwen          4   Finland, Sweden, Portugal, Northern-Ireland, New-Zealand en Tanzania 1

If anybody wants more details, e.g. about the presentations of see more photos, please contact me. But please take a look at the site www.woodfire.net first, there you find the whole program.