Spring Flashback: UAF Lights Wood Kiln, First Time in Five Years

Story and Photos By Lizzy Hahn

Clay, wood, potential glazes, and anagama, also known as “tunnel” kiln. These are the materials the UAF ceramics department used to fire the UAF wood kiln on Friday, April 19. The fire for the wood kiln was lit in the early morning after pottery pieces had been loaded into it days prior. Walking to the wood kiln past the various agriculture labs and maintenance shops sets the atmosphere for the working environment in the kiln at the end of the road. When arriving at the wood kiln, the first sight is the four smaller outdoor kilns until you see the chimney of the large anagama kiln.

ANAGAMA KILN – The UAF anagama kiln was built in 1994 under the supervision of UAF ceramics professor Jim Brashear. The anagama kiln was fired on April 19, 2024 for the first time since 2019.

Photo by Lizzy Hahn

The full anagama kiln comes into view, walking closer. White fire bricks make up the kiln. UAF students can create pieces of all sorts to go in the wood kiln; however, each class received specific project assignments. Beginning pottery students made large historic pots, intermediate pottery students made tea bowls, and the advanced students created whatever they wanted. Approximately 400 pots made it into this year’s wood kiln firing. This was the first firing of the UAF wood kiln since spring 2019. Located on the Agricultural and Forestry Experimental Station near the UAF botanical gardens, the wood kiln was fed day and night from Friday morning to about 1:30 a.m. on Sunday.

“So hot. It's white heat. It melts steel. It melts anything that's in there,” said James Brashear as he talked about how hot the anagama kiln gets. The goal temperature for the wood kiln is 2,300 degrees Fahrenheit. 

James Brashear is a professor and chair of the ceramics department at UAF. Brashear is retiring this year after working for the university for thirty years. Brashear pitched the idea of the wood kiln to UAF and brought it to life. In 1994, Brashear supervised its construction. 

LOADED – James Brashear poses in the wood kiln after loading part of it on Wednesday, April 17, 2024. Brashear is retiring this year, after being a ceramics professor at UAF for the past 30 years. Brashear pitched the idea to UAF to build this wood kiln in 1994 and supervised its construction.

Photo by Lizzy Hahn

“Early on, I decided I would focus on some historical kilns for this research site,” said Brashear. “The anagama was the first kiln that we built.”

Brashear went on to say, “This has been one of my interests, designing [the] construction of kilns, usually based on historical models. I think that it adds a level of breadth to the art program, [and] to the ceramics program.” 

The UAF ceramics department tries to fire the kilns at the research site at least once per semester. There are such limited firings because of the snow that blocks access to the site in the winter. The main kilns used by the UAF ceramics departments are electric and gas kilns located inside the studio in the UAF Fine Arts building.

Starting Tuesday, April 16, pots were moved very carefully to the kiln shed. Newspapers surrounded the fragile pots in cardboard boxes as they were transported into cars to make the 2-mile journey. Upon arriving at the kiln shed, pots are unloaded onto shelves that run up the sides of the slope going to the kiln's entrance.

Ceramics students signed up for four-hour shifts during the firing. During these shifts, students fed the kiln all four hours until the kiln then got to the desired temperature of 2,300 degrees Fahrenheit.

ADMIRING – James Brashear looks at a students finished pouring vessel after it was fired in the UAF anagama kiln. The firing occurred from April 19th to the 21st. The pieces then sat in the kiln for another three days to cool down.

Photo by Lizzy Hahn

“Everyone in the ceramics comes out. Everyone came, and it was a party. I love to see the community in the ceramics department, and that's why I'm continuing to do ceramics,” said Kalysta Fujihana, a UAF freshman. Fujihana worked a four-hour wood kiln shift on Saturday, April 20. Fujihana was a student in Teresa Shannon’s intermediate ceramics class. Students in the intermediate class each made four tea bowls for the anagama kiln firing. During their class on Wednesday, April 17, intermediate students went out to see the wood kiln loading process before the kiln firing. Here, students saw the other styles of kilns. 

“I also want to do more [and] create more pieces for those other kilns that they had,” said Fujihana in reference to the other kilns students were introduced to during the loading process.

Brashear has built a total of 5 kilns here at the UAF campus: the Anagama kiln, the waste oil kiln, the Bourry box salt wood kiln, the Olsen fast firewood kiln, and the Raku kiln are the five kilns located here at UAF. “They're all based on different historical periods,” said Brashear. “What I find interesting about these kilns is that art is a product of its culture. Art is a product of society. At the same time, society is influenced [by] art.”

The Anagama wood kiln requires approximately two and a half to three cords of wood per firing. Since each firing is different, the exact amount of wood changes each time.

Amongst the hustle and bustle within the ceramic studio, students can be found at the pottery wheel or hand building with slabs of clay. Students use a high-fire Cone 10 clay to prepare for the wood kiln firing. 

FIRE PATTERN – James Brashear removes a student’s plate from the wood kiln and admires the fire pattern left behind. Wads of clay are used on the ceramic pieces to prevent them from sticking to other pieces or to the kiln shelves. These wads blocked the flame in certain areas of this plate and show the flames effects on the plate.

Photo by Lizzy Hahn

The anagama gets fired “once a year and the other outdoor kilns, depending on interest, once or twice a year,” said Teresa Shannon, adjunct professor of Ceramics at UAF. “They started a little tiny fire Thursday evening into Friday morning and then gained temperature all the way through Saturday.” The anagama firing was all done at 1:30 a.m. on Sunday.

Pyrometric cones, which are just little pieces of glass in a cone shape, are the determiners in figuring out when the wood kiln has reached the desired temperature.

“When those pieces of glass melt, then we know what temperature we're at. Those pieces of glass correspond to the temperature at which the wood ash melts,” said Brashear.

They must undergo the bisque firing before the pieces enter the wood kiln for their final firing. Artists shape clay into the desired form, and then pieces get covered in plastic to dry out slowly until they have reached the bone-hard stage. After a few days, the pieces are placed in the kiln and fired for approximately 12 to 24 hours. 

After the bisque firing, each piece gets glazed and fired in the glaze firing. Glazes include a mixture of materials and colorants. When exposed to high heat, this coating on the pottery melts and creates a glass-like surface on the face of the piece. Glazes make pottery pieces not only more durable but they also make the piece more food-safe and provide an artistic touch. During this glaze firing, the cone number ensures that the glaze and clay remain intact. Students use high fire for the wood kiln firing, also known as Cone 10 clay. Cone 10 clay gets fired to about 2,300 degrees Fahrenheit. Many students put a Cone 10 glaze on the inside of their pieces but keep the outside bare.

In the anagama kiln, “the wood ash that settles all over the pots, over two days of firing the kiln, it will eventually flux and create a glass,” said Brashear.

UAF offers beginning, intermediate, and advanced ceramics classes each semester. The studio has seven kilns, three clay mixers, and many pottery wheels. “We have a separate outdoor kiln facility at the Experimental Farm that has a large anagama, wood/ salt and fast/fire wood-burning kilns,” according to the UAF website.