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In 1995, together with Dietrich Kleinschmidt, I began to organise the Alt Gaarz ceramic-symposia. They were established as a common forum, to further experimentation and the exchange of ideas, apart from the more commercial daily production. For me it didn’t work that way: I was too busy with all the organisation. So the last symposium took place in 2002. Nevertheless I enjoyed the camaraderie with other potters and craftspeople. I like it, when things and people come to me: «Tourner la terre pendant que d’autres tournent autour…»(Eric Astoul)⁷. At the last symposiumÊpotters from Mecklenburg, including Armin Rieger and Christiane Lamberz, two Korean and one Chinese potter took part. Si-Sook and Kap-Sun had studied in Germany (Kiel), Zhou was already a professor at China National Academy of Arts in Hangzhou. For me the contact with east-Asian ceramics on a working level was very important and exciting. I considered that our approach to the ceramic processes, materials and aesthetics was very similar, however it seems that our customers are not. I remember Kap-Sun, one of the Korean potters, asking me: “Why do you smooth the surface of your pots after trimming with a sponge? Trimming is a part of the working process that should be seen!” I replied: “Oh, I did this years before. It didn’t sell.” However, after this collaboration I was stacked with ideas for years to come (for example shells as wads) and some of Kap-Sun’s enthusiasm (which I had lost a little after 1990) infected me (again). After the symposium I organised an exhibition with the works from the symposium and from other woodfirers from Mecklenburg at the “Petri-Galerie” Rostock and the making of a small catalog, called “Holzbrand 2”. The gallery was owned by an arts and crafts association, of which I’m a member of the advisory board. “Holzbrand 1” took place in 1997 at the Petri-Galerie as a shared exhibition with French ceramists Eric Astoul, Josette Miquel and Hervé Rousseau. Here, I saw the public completely divided: the ceramists were excited and the rest didn’t understand. Too rough, dark and dry. If we see woodfiring as a unique language it seems that many people are illiterate or not willing to read. Art scientists often included. However, strength of this phenomenon differs regionally: The exhibition was later shown in a small town near Kiel, and was a success with remarkable sales. Together with my wife I transported the remaining pots back to La Borne and Henrichemont in central France. This journey left a deep impression. We were happy to enjoy the hospitality of Hervé Rousseau and to watch Eric Astoul while setting his kiln. I have to travel a long distance to the my nearest woodfirer. Here in La Borne you could see one woodfirer stacking their kiln while their neighbour was firing, and around the corner another was just unpacking a kiln. No wonder this place has had such a great influence on all the potters in Mecklenburg! Although our approach is different – Wood’n Salt or “terre brut” – our emphasis on the liveliness of woodfired pots is the same.

In La Borne I saw how plates were placed in the kiln to protect areas of other pots from fly-ash and vapour. I adapted this technique for my own purposes. I treat the surface of those plates like a paper collage: a mixture of different clays, slips and porcelain together with wadmarks and ash. Recently with printed scripts that are particularly bleached away by salt and ash. As a potter you might know already: The production of novelties is very difficult. So I wasn’t much surprised, to red my own associations some weeks ago: “My conscious sources of inspiration lie in that sense of mystery; the mystery of past civilizations… It has … to do with the general mystery of times past, the fascination with how things might have been, with a membership of a human family through time. An object can start that imaginary journey, and my work is to make that object for myself.

For me the best of these objects begin the creation of an imagined history, a dream of a past world in which they could have been made. A fantasy of their making, what they may have been used for, what hands touched them, where they were discarded and lay for eons, accumulating layers of imaginary narrative for my idle daydream, where imagination and uncertainty intertwine.“ (Owen Rye)⁸

“Du tesson pour les lointaines generations future…” (Eric Astoul)⁹ (“Sherds for distant future generations”).

In 2003 Armin Rieger had the idea for another woodfiring project: Anagama Adé. Johannes Mann had built a long catanary arch kiln with additional side stokes in 1989/90. The unusual distance between kiln and chimney was due to an eventually planned prolonging of the kiln in case of expanding the studios production. But in 1990 things changed: the demand for pots decreased dramatically and Johannes had to work and fire alone. The 3m³ (106cuft) kiln took about 30 hours minimum for one firing with salt. Like me Johannes is not the type of guy who likes to organise and teach a firing crew, especially in the rural north-east. So the last firing took place in 2000. 3 years later the kiln looked very romantic with all the plants around and the damaged kiln shed. Johannes thought about dismantling. So the idea was to fire it once again just to say good bye (or adé), together with other woodfirers for an extended period without salting. Here in Mecklenburg my colleagues are using mostly small and efficient down-draft kilns up to 2 m³ (71cuft) for salt-firing, often with a Phoenix-design¹⁰. Nobody has had any experience in woodfiring without salting, but for making the adventure complete Armin and I organised a couple of following exhibitions. After easter 2004 the loading begun in a very exciting atmosphere. Three days after a small fire for preheating was ignited. The further day went on very unexpected: after 18 hours of relaxed firing the 135 pyrometer cone touched toes. The word “pensioners kiln” was born. 38 hours of soaking followed. The kiln was sealed and left alone for one week. Already while watching the end of an Anagama firing at La Borne I found out for myself that there is something missing at the end without salting. I like this kind of culmination with its visible signs and the specific smell. And – although I like very much the results coming from an Anagama – I prefer that I’m not supposed to split a mountain of wood that would have been enough for coming through a middle European winter just for one burning. I always wanted to reach temperature in a reasonably civilised time with an adequate effort. And as well as many others I think about aging as a woodfirer, so a “pensioners kiln” in its very real sense will be one of my next projects in kiln building. But I’ve digressed a little. Despite all the joys we had while working together the kiln produced quite acceptable work. Warm red flashings on porcelain and stoneware slips beside yellows and browns and sometimes greens and blues. And, compared with kilns with a more teardrop-like design, not as much ash deposits on the pots. But mostly exhibitable work. For me it was the first time that I had fired another kiln than my own.

For the exhibitions I had planned to organise the printing of a catalogue, but things turned out a bit different. I was happy enough to gain the support of a fund, but with the condition to produce a book about the whole topic of woodfiring in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania. So, with the help of many other friends and colleagues, the first book about woodfiring in German language was produced in the relative short time of four months.

Until that time the density and quality of woodfiring here in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania was widely unknown in west-Germany. So, as a result of the book, east-German woodfirers were invited to the “Kannofenbrand” 2005 in Höhr-Grenzhausen (at the »Institut für Künstlerische Keramik und Glas«). I mention this because I red nothing about this special type of a updraft woodfire salt glaze kiln in books about salt firing like for example “Salt Glazing” by Phil Rogers (despite this a beautiful book with a very high content of informations)¹¹.

To be continued sometimes…

Bibliography

1 Lou, Nils, The Art of Firing, A & C Black, London, 2003, p.11, ISBN 0-7136-4741-8

2 „Das Drehen auf der Töpferscheibe“, Joachim Jung, Ausbau 7, 18209 Glashagen

3 For details about the bricks see pages 38 and 39: TGL 4323 Schwerschamottesteine and TGL 6262/01 Leichtsteine nach dem Ausbrennverfahren, in: Gass, Kaden, Matthes, Jakobson, Planke, Böhm, Rieger, Holzbrandkeramik in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, (German) Landesverband Kunsthandwerk M-V, 2005

4 Pfannkuche, Bernd, Du Monts Handbuch der Keramikbrennöfen, DuMont, 1986, ISBN 3-7701-1851-0, p. 174 f

5 Stasi: Shortened for „Ministerium für Staatssicherheit“, the secret service and security police of the GDR.

6 Pottery Collectors Newsletter, March 1974, vol. III number VI. Thanks to Pete Goubeaud for sending me the article.

7 See the article of Eric Astoul in „Holzbrand – Feu au Bois“, Catalog of the exhibition with the same name at the Petri-Galerie Rostock, French/German, 1996, unfortunately now sold out. The article was also printed in „La Revue de la Ceramique et du Verre“.

8 Anagama: The Art of Uncertainty, by Owen Rye, first Published in Ceramics Art and Perception No. 10, 1992, pages 40-42

9 See above (7)

10 See „Studio Potter“ volume 7 number 9 (1979) or a whole lot more informations at the web

11 published 2002 by A & C Black Limited, London, ISBN 0-7136-4821-X