Ceil Sturdevant, Pittsburgh, PA
These pieces were fired in a noborigama kiln with my senior student’s work in May of 2017. It has become a tradition for their final firing before they graduate to be a communal wood firing. I feel firing in an ancient noborigama styled kiln is the most magical of all firing methods. The kiln does become a fire-breathing dragon that breaths and consumes our final group’s clay work. The burning of wood as the fuel is the ultimate celebration that I share with my students as a teacher and clay artist.
My “Fire Vessel” series pieces were thrown and later embellished with sculpted flame handles. The vessel’s rich surface treatments are achieved by the wood ash following the flame’s path. The flame begins at the wood box to the arched kiln chamber and then escapes through the chimney. Each work is placed in the kiln with care, hoping to understand the flames path, but knowing the flames have their own ideas.
During our Fall Raku firing I read passages from Kangiro Kawai’s book, The Windows of Life, to my students. They quietly listen to his thoughts with their tea bowls fresh out of the kiln preparing for our simple tea ceremony.
“We Do Not Work Alone” by Kanjiro Kawai
These words are not my own-they cannot possibly be-
for they belong to those who read them.
Fire in my hand,
A cold ball of fire,
Fire which has changed its shape
Hidden in clay
...pottery
To everything
Goes the gift of fire.
Bake and harden!
The plea of fire.
The prayer of fire,
To melt, to melt!
That is the prayer of fire.
Those fiery forms
The flames caress.
The man (women) who strokes the fire
Is the flame itself.
Wabi and Sabi: The beauty of poverty,
Ordered poverty.
What is beauty
But joy found
In all of life.
The pledge of fire:
To return all things purified.
Sharing Kanjiro Kawai’s beautiful and descriptive words with my students is an honor. I also get new insights each time I read his thoughts again and again.
Artist's web site:
http://www.ceilclay.com/
My “Fire Vessel” series pieces were thrown and later embellished with sculpted flame handles. The vessel’s rich surface treatments are achieved by the wood ash following the flame’s path. The flame begins at the wood box to the arched kiln chamber and then escapes through the chimney. Each work is placed in the kiln with care, hoping to understand the flames path, but knowing the flames have their own ideas.
During our Fall Raku firing I read passages from Kangiro Kawai’s book, The Windows of Life, to my students. They quietly listen to his thoughts with their tea bowls fresh out of the kiln preparing for our simple tea ceremony.
“We Do Not Work Alone” by Kanjiro Kawai
These words are not my own-they cannot possibly be-
for they belong to those who read them.
Fire in my hand,
A cold ball of fire,
Fire which has changed its shape
Hidden in clay
...pottery
To everything
Goes the gift of fire.
Bake and harden!
The plea of fire.
The prayer of fire,
To melt, to melt!
That is the prayer of fire.
Those fiery forms
The flames caress.
The man (women) who strokes the fire
Is the flame itself.
Wabi and Sabi: The beauty of poverty,
Ordered poverty.
What is beauty
But joy found
In all of life.
The pledge of fire:
To return all things purified.
Sharing Kanjiro Kawai’s beautiful and descriptive words with my students is an honor. I also get new insights each time I read his thoughts again and again.
Artist's web site:
http://www.ceilclay.com/