18/05/2026
I had an amazing day yesterday helping (if you can call it that or was it more like getting in the way 🤔?) First and foremost, what a lovely bunch of people!! I was super tired when I arrived home but also full of thoughts about clay communities, rituals and the complex relationship we have with materials.
What struck me most was how much of wood firing is about attention. Watching a pyrometer, flames as they move around the kiln, cones bending at strategic places in the kiln, ash build up, and safety measures too. Tiny shifts constantly being read and interpreted. It felt less like controlling the kiln and more like being in conversation with 'it'.
Ive heard so many potters talk about kiln gods as though we are doing something sacrificial, which is not without risk. The kiln, often anthropomorphised into something to be fed (or tame?) There was a real sense that the materials are not passive and this made me think of Jane Bennett's Vibrant Matter. Bennett discusses the idea of thing power or material agency. Things exert force back onto us and this is laid bare in wood firing.
The group dynamic also made me think of Wenger's communities of practice. Knowledge was shared through doing rather than formal instruction. Jobs shifted fluidly between potters, stories and advice were exchanged, and a huge amount of tacit knowledge was passed around through observation and participation.
Very grateful to you all for sharing and welcoming me. Please can I come back? 😊
