FIRE and FIBRE
Collaborative artworks and installations by members of the Scottish Potters’
Association and the Scottish Basketmakers’
Circle at the Collins Gallery,
19
November –
opening Tuesday-Friday 10-5 & Saturday 12-4
come to the
opening from
see Fire and Fibre, Collins Gallery
Glasgow 2011 opening day and exhibits
Collins
Gallery,
Selected Exhibitors/Partners:
Anne Murray (SPA) & Caroline Dear
(SBC)
Jane
Kelly (SPA) & Jan Miller (SBC)
Working on 3 forms which
aim to place plant fibres and fired clay into different contexts: water, air
and earth.
A willow duck bender with
ceramic eggs. Based on Tinkers’ Benders, will be a traditional willow
structure woven with hedgerow foliage. This is an environmental project
intended to replace the plastic duck house on a local Penicuik pond.
Unlike plastic the willow has potential to root into the pond bottom to
become a stable and comfortable home for the resident ducks. The eggs will be
in stoneware clay, raku or porcelain.
A hanging
structure made from pieces of Scottish bogwood
supporting delicate ceramic, glass and fibre seed pods and textural
forms. This will be supported from a ceiling or wall.
A willow
hurdle screen supported by wire and wood. Woven with
ceramic flowers and leaf shapes, and with some flower heads in glass, paper or
clay.
Bill Runciman
(SPA) & Eileen Runciman (SBC)
Anne
Lightwood (SPA) & Jon Warnes (SBC)
Kerstin Gren (SPA) & Tim Palmer (SBC)
Jenny Mackenzie Ross (SPA) &
George Legg (SBC)
Maralyn Reed-Wood
(SPA) & Heather Reddish (SBC)
Johan Carslaw
(SPA) & Ailsa Morrant (SBC)
Kirsty O’Connor (SPA) & Anna King
(SBC)
Kirsty O’ Connor (SPA) & Pip Weaser
(SBC)
Frances Drewery
(SPA) & Pip Weaser (SBC)
Fran Marquis (SPA) & Georgia
Crook (SBC)
Fran Marquis (SPA) & Sue Beavan (SBC)
The
exhibition will comprise over 35 artworks and installations in which members of
both groups have collaborated to complement and push the boundaries of each
other’s practice.
Individual makers will also be represented by a
range of smaller pieces which will be available for immediate sale. Ideal for
festive presents!
Exhibition background
“This
exhibition follows from a workshop at Cromarty on the Black Isle in the autumn
in 2007 when the Scottish Potters’ Association (SPA) enlisted the help of some basketmakers in the Scottish Basketmakers’ Circle (SBC) to
make a “Basket Kiln”. The main structure of the kiln was created in woven withy
which was then covered in clay. Once the kiln was fired, the clay dried and the
basket burnt away. Timing was crucial so that the clay was dry enough to hold
its structure before the basket burnt in the high firing temperatures (around
900 degrees C). Although this was mainly an SPA event, some SBC members were
also involved, leading to planning an exhibition together and participants of
both organisations attending each other’s workshops.
The
first exhibition in this series was Pots & Baskets at the Bield Blackruthven in October 2009. It was an interesting
and successful exhibition but felt like a starter for more experimental work.
So this exhibition at the Collins, Fire & Fibre, deliberately set out to
widen the scope of collaborative projects.” -Fran Marquis, Scottish Potters’ Association
The Cromarty Kiln – Joint
Scottish Potters’ Association and Scottish Basketmakers’ Circle Project
Article by Veronica Newman (SPA) and Tim Palmer (SBC)
At
an Applied Arts
The
specification for the kiln was that it should incorporate basket work and be
capable of firing to at least low earthenware temperatures. There were a number
of factors to consider:
- A pure willow structure would have to include a lot of willow in order to
reach and maintain the required temperature.
- The temperature rise would be very rapid, and would probably lead to
unacceptable loss of pots.
- Setting fire to such a structure would require a wide open space,
and the proposed venue - The Cromarty Arts Centre - was an old stable block
surrounded by trees.
Some
research into willow kilns led to an article in Ceramic Review by John Nuttgens
(CR 2003:199: 47-49 ) describing a kiln used for raku
work built at the
After
consideration of various architectures, a simple up-draught kiln was decided on because of the ease of construction of the firebox
and willow former for the body of the kiln. A three-quarter scale prototype was
constructed and fired successfully at the end of June 2007 at Fursbreck Pottery in Orkney, easily achieving 970oC. The final
design was essentially unchanged from the prototype and was a bottle shape kiln
1900mm high with a base 1000mm diameter. The chimney narrowed to 250mm for the
last 400mm, giving a firing chamber 1500mm high. There was an arch 600mm wide
kiln at the bottom of the framework. The kiln was positioned over a pit within
which was built a framework of firebrick and kiln shelves that would be the
floor of the kiln. The kiln shelves were positioned at the level of the top of
the arch. The firebox, 1000mm long and 600mm wide, was built extending from the
arch. The ash pit was an extension of the pit under the kiln floor. The walls
were made of firebrick, the fire bars of reinforcing mesh for concrete
structures, and the roof of kiln shelves. There was an insulating layer of
earth and turves.
The
weaves for the framework were those used in Irish and Scottish pack creels,
(Joe Hogan, Basketmaking in
The mixture used in Orkney for the clay covering was a local
(Minehowe) clay mixed with 25% builder's sand and 25%
combustible material. The latter incorporated sawdust, wood shavings and grass
clippings. The grass improved the plasticity of the
final mix but was not available for the Cromarty Kiln. The clay covering
was built up in layers to a final thickness of ~ 100mm, reducing to ~75mm at
the top of the chimney. Firing the prototype had shown that a layered
construction was better than using 'bricks' as the cracks that developed were
not full-thickness and were less likely to cause structural instability. The
door was constructed with sloping edges so that the bottom fitted into the kiln
and the sides and top overlapped the outside of the body. This arrangement
ensured that the weight of the door kept it pressed into its seat, and the reverse
slope on the bottom stopped it sliding out at the bottom. Because a large pot
(nearly 500mm diameter) was to be fired, the door was constructed in two
sections, 1/3 and 2/3 of the overall size, with the slopes of the sides such
that the larger portion came out first. The door sections were separated from
the body of the kiln by a layer of newspaper and lifted out by means of bone
handles set into the clay. The clay used was a mixture of material of uncertain
qualities, but mostly grey and probably earthenware. Again, sand or grog and
combustible material was mixed in, to a proportion of 50:25:25, but no grass
was used.
Construction
of the willow framework took one day. The bottle was divided into two sections
at approximately two-thirds its overall height so that the bottom section could
be plastered and allowed to dry before loading the kiln from the top and
finishing the kiln by replacing and plastering the chimney. Preparing the site,
the clay mixture and plastering up to the base of the chimney took four people
two days, led by Bärbel Dister,
the SPA workshops coordinator. The most efficient method of mixing the clay was
found to be treading - initially in a bath and then finishing the mix off on a
tarpaulin. The initial layer of clay was forced into the weave of the willow,
subsequent layers being applied by hand, and the final layer trowelled smooth with a plastering float. No decoration was
applied although votive figures were placed on small ledges on the outside of
the kiln. Impressed decoration had been used on the Orkney kiln to see if it
would help drying, but it merely concentrated the drying stresses, leading to
more severe cracking in the decorated areas. The lower portion of the kiln was
built a week before the workshop in order to allow it to dry out, but the wet
weather meant that there was no significant drying over the week.
On
the first evening of the workshop, the kiln was loaded with a variety of pots
and figures brought by SPA members and the chimney put in place and plastered.
The kiln was then lit. The intention was to keep the temperature between 100o
and 200o C overnight, but at about 03.00 it started to rain and the kiln was
covered with a tarpaulin. Firing started again at 09.30 the next morning with a
temperature of 200o C being maintained until 12.30. Cracks appeared as the clay
dried and were filled with clay mix.
The
temperature was taken up from 12.30 hrs. At 400o C (14.00 hrs) the willow
burned away and the temperature rose to 600o C over a period of 5 minutes. This
temperature was maintained by vigorous stoking, combined with the presence of
wood shavings and sawdust packed into and around the pots, the large pot acting
as a sagger. The test kiln had experienced a similar
rise in temperature but this was followed by an equally rapid fall. The rapid
fluctuation in temperature had caused some damage to the pots. The temperature
rise continued, with 1000o C being reached at 15.30 hrs. The kiln oscillated
between reduction and oxidation, with corresponding falls and rises in
temperature. 1100o C was reached at 16.00 hrs, and
1111o C at the bottom of the chimney by 16.10 hrs.
The
kiln was left overnight to cool and opened at 14.00 hrs on the Sunday. A terracotta
brick that formed the main support for the floor of the kiln had sagged and
broken. The large grooved ware pot, made with Orkney clay, had slumped
dramatically and broken. Some of the pots around had fused to it. The
combination of wood ash and the salts from the seaweed had glazed some of the
pots and welded pieces of kiln shelf together. All the pieces apart from the
grooved ware pot had survived and showed various surface effects resulting from
the reduction and salt/ash glazing. The grooved ware pot was glazed and in
places the clay appeared fused.
The
results achieved with the Cromarty kiln indicate that Iron Age potters were capable
of achieving significant temperatures. The design of the kiln is similar to
Roman kilns excavated in Yorkshire (Stephen Harrison, personal communication)
that also show similar impressed patterns on the inner surface. It would have
been preferable to allow the Cromarty kiln to dry further before firing,
especially as the mix was wetter than the Orkney kiln. However, the weather and
timings conspired against this. The wall of the kiln had cracked more than the
prototype but had fired to a greater depth. The handles for the door, made from
bones, had burned away within the thickness of the door. Despite the cracks,
the kiln was structurally sound after the firing. The terracotta brick
survived 970o C in the trial kiln, but not the higher temperature achieved at
Cromarty. The temperature at the base of the chimney was 1148o C, and it is
likely that the temperature at the base of the kiln was of the order of 1180o
C. Iron age kilns would have probably have had floors of clay supported on
brick piers which would not have suffered in this way. Both kilns were
economical in their use of fuel, and fired quickly without too much difficulty.
It was hoped that the cracks could be filled with a slip/sawdust mixture and
the kiln used again but sadly the kiln has not survived the Scottish winter.
The
Orkney kiln survived and was fired again at the 2008 SPA Autumn Gathering. This
event included firing a kiln with turf walls, fueled
with peat, as well as the second firing of the willow kiln. Attempts were made
to vitrify the structure. These activities, monitored by experienced
archaeologists, were designed to expand our knowledge of firing techniques used
by the sophisticated inhabitants of the Stone and Bronze ages.
Fire and Fibre, Collins Gallery
Glasgow 2011 opening day and exhibits
Cromarty
Pictures 2007 Jane Kelly, Scottish
Potters Association
Pots
and Baskets at Blackruthven 2009 Jane Kelly, exhibition organiser
Jane Kelly
Penicuik Pottery homepage