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| Ian Jones |
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I have been potting for thirty years this year, and during this period my work has been predominately driven by an exploration of the Woodfire process. This has led to me building numerous “Anagama” style kilns leading to the two kilns that my wife, Moraig McKenna and I currently work with.
My work has been predominately functional in orientation, inspired by the pots produced by European folk potters, by Japanese traditional ceramics from the kilns of Shigaraki, Bizen, Tamba and Tokoname, as well as the Anglo-oriental Leach tradition in 20 th century Britain.
Woodfired ceramics can produce surfaces with a complexity and natural gradation of effect, which is not readily achievable through any other firing process. The kiln writes a story on the surface of each piece as the ash that is lifted out of the firebox interacts with the surface of the pot. The flame wraps around the work, and the side away from the firebox develops a toasted surface quality known as flashing. Where wood or embers land directly on the work, rougher encrusted surface qualities develop.
This search for the story written on the works in the kiln was a driving motivation behind the major work recently exhibited at CraftACT in conjunction with the Gundaroo Woodfire 05 conference convened by Moraig and myself. This work was a seven metre long installation titled “Wall” which documents the inside of the nine metre long Anagama.
My work consists of a range of functional pots from teapots, dinner plates, coffee mugs, vases, bread-crocks through to the seven metre by just over one metre wall.
I enjoy producing lots of pots, searching for the character that makes one out of a series of nearly identical pots stand out as being clearly better.
During the summer we are unable to fire the wood-kilns, so the wood-firing is reserved for the cooler and wetter months. We fire the nine metre long kiln twice a year, and the smaller kiln about three times each year. We mostly use pine, either mill waste or timber rejected in the forest, and fire the kilns for periods of from four to six days. The long firing times allows for the build-up of richer and more complex ash deposits. The collection and preparation of the wood, as well as the length of the firings make woodfiring a hugely labour intensive process, but I believe that the results justify the effort.
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