Art Gallery specializing in Anagama wood-fired ceramic. Website: Email: Hours: Phone: Address:
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merchants: bradford pottery
J. Bradford Gallery specializes in unique ceramic art made in the ancient tradition of woodfiring. There is an inherent referal to the ancient techniques of Korea, China and Japan in our election to fire our wares in a wood kiln. We have intentionally embraced certain risks, and forgone certain assurances of outcome in doing so-- and with great enthusiasm.
About Woodfiring
There is an inherent referal to the ancient techniques of Korea, China and Japan in our election to fire our wares in a wood kiln. We have intentionally embraced certain risks, and forgone certain assurances of outcome in doing so-- and with great enthusiasm. We spend between two to four days, around the clock, consuming several cords of wood to reach an approximate 2400 degrees farenheight. This process is labor-intensive, requiring a team of potters to consistently stoke about four pieces of wood every 2 to 4 minutes throughout the duration of the firing.
Many potters respond to woodfiring because of the active participation in bringing their pots to finish. There is a quiet, soft rumble as wood is stoked into the kiln; there is the odor of the various types of wood igniting; there is the flame pulsing and licking out of every orifice it can locate: all this imparts the sensation that we are feeding and making grow something very alive. This vitality seems to fuse with the pots themselves and entirely influence the visual appearance, the texture, and the very spirit of the resulting wares. The fire reaches such a high temperature that the ash from the wood flows through the kiln like leaves on a river of flame, snows down on the rims and shoulders of the vessels, and melts into a natural glaze where it lands. Each piece retrieved from the kiln is a visual record of the path and activity of the fire. The element of chance, that haphazard possibility of humble yet dramatic beauty is precisely the aesthetic that draws us to wood fire-- whether as potters, participants or collectors. Although in America we have altered somewhat the approach to wood firing in terms of both the end product and process, there continues to be great reverence and reference to our Asian predecessors and contemporaries in what we do.