A potter's life: The fire of creation

A potter's life is one of creation and reincarnation, just like the circle of life itself.

The studio potter’s life is a world apart. His pride is his hands, his spirit, the clay, his belief, the fire and his gods… the kilns. His is a life of creation and reincarnation, just like the circle of life itself. There is something very primal about the potter’s art. With nothing but the formless earth as his tool, he shapes the clay with the power of his imagination. Then, almost like a pagan offering to a god of fire, the pieces are consigned to the flames. But instead of destruction, there is rebirth as the clay hardens and takes form. These practices are ancient, and their origins are not restricted to a certain location.

There are many kinds of kilns, and with time a lot of potters have learnt to tame the flames and their kilns. But with change has also come the debasement of the art. Technology has swallowed the rawness of the kiln, the simple beauty of its form. It has tamed and subdued the kilns to mere boxes of fire controlled by a tiny gauge. While the job may have become easier, the exquisite, ancient effects achieved when firing huge kilns with wood are unattainable with the modern kilns. To achieve that kind of perfection means returning to the primitive form of the kilns.

Wood firing techniques are used throughout the world, but it was the Chinese and later the Japanese potters that first developed the techniques. As the name implies, it is a kind of firing that uses wood as fuel. These are very high temperature firings in which temperatures can reach as high as 1280^oc to 1400^oc in a matter of days or weeks. During the firing, the firers rake and shake the cinders to make ash fly with the fire. This ash, when it enters the inside of the kiln, deposits onto the wares and after a time when the temperature rises higher than its melting point, it melts onto the pieces, thus producing enigmatic splotches of glaze over the wares. These glassy, glaze like drips are called ash melts and are only inherent in traditional wood-firings.

Other traditional firings include pit/smoke firings where the wares are packed into a pit and covered with combustible material.  A small fire is lit and then the kiln is completely covered, just leaving enough room for the soft dying fire to breathe. In doing so, it produces excessive amounts of carbon and the wares get painted with carbon flames. When this firing is duplicated in a controlled electric or gas kiln, one can never produce the beauty of the unpredictable dying flame.

It’s true that technology makes life easier and makes many things more convenient, but instead of bartering away the soul of the art in order to save time and effort it is better to return to the origins, ancient though they may be.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 30^th, 2011.