Newspaper Article 1986 – Year’s work ends on a hot note

Year’s work ends on a hot note

By BRENT REID

POTTERS Bruce and Estelle Martin are preparing themselves mentally and physically for the climax of a year’s work at Bridge Pa near Hastings.

Next month they will fire their large anagama (a Japanese word meaning hole kiln) to put finishing touches to about 1000 items of pottery.

The firing process will last around the clock for 10 days, which will give the couple little time to sleep as a constant supply of wood must be maintained in the kiln.

As the firing was the culmination of a year’s work, it was critical nothing went wrong, Mr Martin said.

During this period the couple will be helped by four other people including their sons, Craig, of Napier, and Dean, of Wellington.

The extra people are needed because the kiln, which reaches temperatures of more than 1300 degrees celsius during the last three to four days of firing, has to be fed with fresh supplies of wood every five to seven minutes.

“The adrenalin really flows at this time, which enables us to go long periods without sleep,” Mrs Martin said.

“Besides, it is such an exciting time, one does not want to miss out on something by sleeping.”

The buildup to the firing meant they were reasonably fit for a concentrated effort, she said.

“Carting the pots about 150 metres from the workshop to the kiln and preparing 25 cords of wood for fuel makes us pretty fit.”

This year’s production will be the fifth from the 500 cubic metre kiln which the Martins decided to build after seeing a similar kiln used by master Japanese potter Sanyo Fujii during a visit to Japan in 1978.

Pots fired in anagamas were unique in that they did not have to be glazed beforehand Mr Martin said.

“The ash and flame in the kiln produce natural glazes that cannot be obtained in any other way.”

Photo captions –

MR MARTIN by the kiln entrance. Some of the large store of wood needed to fuel the kiln can be seen in the background.

MRS MARTIN places in the kiln some of the one thousand pots ready for firing.