2nd European Woodfire Conference to be held in Skælskør, Denmark from the 28th -31st August 2014.

Skælskør is a small coastal town one and a half hours by road from Copenhagen. From Copenhagen Airport, or the Main Station, trains run to Slagelse where you change to bus nr 470 to Skælskør. Link here allows you to plan your journey. Enter "Skælskør Bus Station" as destination.
A list of accommodation options in Skælskør can be found here on this blog.

Wednesday 12 February 2014

Pre-Conference residency for the month of August at International Ceramic Center - Guldagergaard

Studio building, Guldagergaard

The whole of the month of August at Guldagergaard will be given over to making, woodfiring, kiln building and re-building!
There are a limited number of residency places available - and  it promises to be an exciting month, culminating of course in the 2nd European Woodfire Conference taking place at Guldagergaard and all over the town! To crown it all - it will be High Summer!


Bourry Box Train kiln - Skælskør Express

Add caption

Firing the small anagama

Egle Paksylte - woodfiring technician

Read about residencies at Guldagergaard here.
The application form is online.

Call for papers: 2nd European Woodfire Conference 28th - 31st August 2014

Exciting proposals for talks and demonstrations have already been received for consideration for inclusion in the program of the upcoming "2nd European Woodfire Conference" to be held in Skælskør, Denmark from the 28th - 31st August 2014.
So, if you are thinking of coming and presenting you ideas, your work, your kiln, your theories....send us a summary as soon as possible!

Send proposals to us here

Some of the topics: 
Younger Woodfirers – your work, kilns, future plans, hopes, dreams, and even the failures  you have learnt from.
Sustainability and the Woodfire kiln: myths debunked and information shared.
Blurring the Edges – Print and decoration in the woodfire kiln
Wood-fired Earthenware – a rich tradition.
Pioneers of woodfiring in Europe 
The World-Wide Woodfiring scene
Selling your work
Also, if you know of any relevant films to include in the evening program, let us know about them! 

Thursday 6 February 2014

Pre-Conference Workshop in Germany!




Pre-conference workshop "Strange Things with Salt" with Chester Nealie and Markus Böhm at Müritzkeramik, Alt Gaarz, Germany


21st August to 26th August
Muritz to Skælskør: 282kms (including ferry crossing)


Müritz
4 hours 54 mins
Skaelskor, Denmark

282.0 km
From: Müritz To: Skaelskor, Denmark

Strange Things with Salt


Salt firing workshop with Chester Nealie at Alt Gaarz



Jan 13
This workshop is organised by the Geman potters association "kalkspatz e.V." - the same organisation, that organised the first European Woodfire Conference at Bröllin. Now Danish woodfirers have taken over the challenge of organising the second conference at Skælskør and incorporated this workshop within their official pre-conference programme. 
Chester
began potting in 1964 after instruction in New Zealand from Shoji Hamada, Takeichi Kawai and Michael Cardew. He has lectured, built kilns and conducted many firings in New Zealand, Australia, Japan, USA, Korea and Norway. Although the pots have a basic classical form, their individuality is present in the freedom and joy in hand-making combined with the magical spontaneity of flame. He lives now  at Goanna Ridge near Gulgong, NSW, Australia.

He will do strange things with salt at Alt Gaarz within the beautiful landscape of the Mecklenburg lake district and he will use Markus Böhm's famous and very successful, smokeless Bourry Box kiln, which was built and designed together with Steve Harrison. So the technique of salt firing returns to Germany from the opposite side of the world with all the changes that took place. Chester will place wood directly on the pots, load the kiln with bundle stacks, throw the salt onto the pots instead bringing it into the fire box, use charcoal for the firing instead for the grill and do other strange things - all this to achieve those special woodfire salt glaze effects that are creating these wonderful lively surfaces. During the cooling cycle of the kiln he will demonstrate, i.e. his coil and throw techniques on the wheel.
This is a workshop for all of you, who are bored about throwing salt into the fire box - and for those, who would like to enjoy the late summer laid back atmosphere between two lakes together with friends and good talks.
Please bring some bisqued pots with you. They should stand at cone 11 to 13. Maybe cone 14. And please not again only tea bowls - we need pots for bundle-stacking!
Term: Thursday, 21st of August to Tuesday, 26th of August
Place: D-17248 Alt Gaarz, Müritzkeramik
Participants: 14 (maximum)
Fee: 350€ (330€ for kalkspatz members) (without accommodation and food)
For accommodation you can book directly here or just ask us, we try to find something. If you are interested, please do not book too late, it is still high season!
The meals are together with share in the costs. We will organise kitchen-teams among the participants.
 Booking the workshop is directly at kalkspatz e.V.  (The German potters Association). You are booked when kalkspatz e.V. receives the payment. Please contact Frauke Sambale at sem@kalkspatz.de 
Thursday, 21st of August to Tuesday, 26th of August

Accommodation options in and around Skælskør for the 2nd European Woodfire Conference

Accommodation options in Skælskør includes the cosy small "Hotel Postgården" on the harbourfront, to the fine hostel "Skælskør Lystskov", on the edge of the town, and "Skælskør Camping Nor" on the waters edge of the "Nor", or inner fjord.
Here is a list with links - bookings should be made directly with the individual accommodation.


Accommodation options:

In Skælskør:
Danhostel Skælskør Lystskov: http://lystskoven.dk
Villa Fjordhøj: http://www.villafjordhoej.dk
Bed and Breakfast (Anders Sorig) Kaptajnhuset 
Camping and cabins: Skælskør Nor Camping

3.8kms from Skælskør
Hotel Kobæk Strand http://www.kobaek-strand.dk/index.cfm/pages/rooms.html

6kms from Skælskør 
Camping and cabins: Boeslunde Camping 

20kms from Skælskør
Slagelse Danhostel

Tuesday 4 February 2014

Ist post on the 2nd European Woodfire Conference Blog!




International Ceramic Research Center - Guldagergaard, Skælskør, Denmark
28 – 31 August 2014


After the 1st European Woodfire Conference, held in Bröllin, Germany in 2010, the International Ceramic Research Center – Guldagergaard took up the challenge to organize the next conference, and to follow up on the momentum gained by that inspiring event.
Ceramic artists, woodfirers, students of ceramics, collectors, and the general public are invited to Denmark in the late summer of 2014 to participate in a wealth of activities centred around the process of firing with wood and to see work from wood-fired kilns.

The Conference will be held in and around the small harbour town of Skælskør, which lies 170km South-West of Copenhagen, on the island of Zealand.
During the conference there will be several exhibitions of wood-fired ceramics in various venues around the town of Skælskør.

The studio building at Guldagergaard has recently reopened after a major renovation. A new second floor houses three lecture rooms where group discussions and demonstrations will take place.

Guldagergaard has four woodfire kilns, Embla, a cross-draught kiln built by Fred Olsen in 1998, the Skælskør Express, a Bourry-Box train kiln built by Robert Sanderson and Coll Minogue in 1999, a small new anagama built by Andres Allik in 2012, and a woodfire soda kiln. There will be a kiln building workshop leading up to the conference, when further kilns will be built and fired.

The pre-conference programme is being planned. It will culminate in an intense ten day workshop of kiln firing immediately prior to the conference. Kilns will be opened and unpacked on the last day of the conference.

We invite proposals for all aspects of the conference: lectures, topics for panel discussions, and demonstrations. Exhibition proposals are also welcome.

Further details will be announced on the website once they are confirmed.

The conference fee of Dkr 1950 (approx. EUR€262 / US$356) includes dinner on the opening night and two lunches. Buffet or grill dinners on the other nights will be available at a small additional charge. The conference fee will be waived for a limited number of students in full-time education who register early:  they will only pay Dkr 450 (approx. EUR€61 / US$82) to cover meals.

The conference language will be English.

Conference registration and information about pre-conference workshops and links to accommodation in Skælskør will shortly be available  here. Meanwhile see other posts on this blog.

International Ceramic Research Center - Guldagergaard
Heilmannsvej 31A

DK-4230 Skælskør

Denmark


T: +45 58 19 00 16


Enquiries and proposals for papers, demonstrators and exhibitions are welcome -  please send them to:  office@ceramic.dk