In the summer of 2003 I traveled to Corning, New York to build
them a small anagama. Fred Herbst the professor there is working
hard to expose his students to the wider world of ceramics. Through
his hard work and fundraising they are one of the only community
colleges in the United States with an anagama kiln.
Many of the bricks for the Corning kiln were donated by Rochester
Institute of Art saving corning thousands of dollars. Two days of
this intense workshop were spent cleaning brick, and we laid brick
as fast as we could grind off the mortar. This kiln is a hodge-podge
of fire brick from different companies around the states. I was
deeply impressed by how hard the students at Corning worked, they
spent 10 hours a day building the kiln and then left to work their
part time jobs only to return the next morning eager to work again.
We buttressed around the kiln with yards and yards of earth and
stone, all shoveled by hand, and held into place with big 8 foot
concrete parking bumpers stacked one on top of another. The resulting
front of the kiln is a beautiful chevron of lines leading into the
chamber.
Mill Creek
Pottery
W11561 Mill Creek Rd. - Gresham, WI 54128
Phone: 715.787.4831
Email: simon@woodfire.com
