Pottery made by hand and fired with wood

Ken discovered pottery in high school art class. No one else was having success centering a pot on the wheel, but Ken did and he enjoyed it. The next summer he left his construction job and went to the pottery studio at the Art and Sciences Center in St. Paul.

Ken attended Bemidji State and figured he could "keep his sanity" if he got into a pottery class. The instructor was looking for an assistant to mix glazes, load and unload the kiln, and other studio tasks. Ken was ecstatic as accepting this position gave him a key to the studio!

After school Ken worked two jobs to earn money to buy land. Then he continued working for money to build a basement on the land. He built a Japanese noborigama two chambered kiln and did twenty craft shows each season for three years. He built a mailing list and finally could sell at his studio rather than doing shows. After thirty plus years Ken is proud of the number of families that use his dishes every day.

Ken makes his pots on a Leach treadle wheel designed in the early 1900's. He believes foot power gives him a closer feel to the clay. Since the glaciers came through this area, there are very few large deposits of local clay. He mixes his clay from several components; some are local, others from the Midwest like Ohio. He starts with dry clay. It takes less energy to move dry powder. He likes to mix clay ahead so it can freeze and thaw. That freezing and thawing brings back the elasticity to the clay.

Ken creates glazes from local materials. Many glazes start with our woods and vegetables -corn stalks, bean husks, raspberry canes, maple wood, walnuts, etc. They are burned to an ash and then testing begins. Glazes need three components in balance: something to stick the glaze to the pot, something to melt the glaze, and something to form glass.

We fire the pottery in a kiln we built from used fire brick. Ken says, "Sears doesn't make 'em, and UPS doesn't ship "em." Our current kiln holds 2,000 - 3,000 pots so we usually fire once a year. Firing takes four days. We use wood harvested from our land. Firing is a group effort that requires 24/7 work. And enjoyable work it is. Once the kiln reaches 2400 degrees, it is sealed to cool slowly to avoid pottery cracking from thermal shock. Cooling takes about a week. The pottery is removed and cleaned.

During the firing the pottery is in a river of flame. As wood is placed in the kiln, the ash flies through the kiln. Both ash and flame affect each piece differently to create unique qualities.