Reitzagama 2017

It's been a while since I've updated this blog, partly because it's been so incredibly busy. We finished the Reitzagama back in November and unloaded the kiln on December 10. There was a great turnout for the unloading, and the kiln did not disappoint. I walked away with a few excellent pieces. It definitely has me excited to fire another woodkiln again soon!

I'll be uploading images of the events below. Stay Tuned!

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Florida Heat at St. Petersburg, FL

I have been fortunate enough to attend Florida Heat once again! This is my second time going with Don and I cant wait for next year.

The St. Petersburg Clay Company, Morean Arts Center, and Highwater Clays, are located into the Historic Seaboard Coastline Freight Depot also known as "The Train Station". Florida Heat is put on by the Train Station of St. Petersburg, FL.  Florida Heat is a 2 week firing symposium, where artists come together to fire several different atmospheric kilns, like an Anagama woodkiln, a train kiln, soda kiln and a salt kiln.

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Tomagama - UPDATED Unloading

I helped a friend out last week fire an anagama kiln on his property in Chino Valley. Tom Alward, Jonathan Cross and a few others got together to fire for 5 days with a reduction cool at the end of the firing. We were firing during a county wide fire ban in Arizona, but we called the Fire Marshall first. They came out and took a look at the kiln and gave us the green light to start the kiln. I took several photos of the loading and the firing. I'll post pictures of the unloading next week! Be sure to check back soon.

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Mat Rude Visit

This November Don Reitz has invited 4 major ceramic artists to come out and be apart of an Anagama firing. To prepare for the kiln Don invited his past assistant Mat Rude to come out and help make some larger pieces for the upcoming firing with us. It was really great to see my old friend (not too often you get to see other people out at the ranch), and work in the studio to create some really amazing work.It was truly amazing to see each piece start from a basic cylinder or cone shape and become absolutely fascinating sculptures. There were several times over the last 5 days that I couldn't help but just pinch myself to make sure that I wasn't dreaming. It was so cool to see the studio so full of energy and creativity. As the pieces were being assembled Don was bouncing from piece to piece working a little bit on each one allowing the other to dry. That was pretty fascinating to see how Don works with the larger scale work. Below are photos from the week and I will upload the final pieces as they are finished. I'm really looking forward to the Anagama firing!

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