May 11 1999

Brainerd Daily Dispatch

May 11 1999

photo: upnorth
This cup, created by artist Meg Bye, was fired using primitive blackware firing, which blackens the surface of the clay.
Pequot students create primitive clay pottery the old-fashioned way
Artists spend weekend at farm learning firing techniques

By JODIE TWEED
Staff Writer PEQUOT LAKES -- Armed with leftover food from the Pequot Lakes School cafeteria and clumps of discarded hair from Mayor Jack Schmidt's barbershop, Pequot Lakes art students spent all day Saturday at a Pequot Lakes family farm creating primitive clay pottery as it was done hundreds of years ago.

Long before electricity was invented and kilns could be plugged into an outlet, clay pottery was created by using the "magic" of the fire.

Artist Meg Bye, Pequot Lakes, spent two weeks teaching Dave Guenther's art students about the three basic primitive firing techniques: blackware firing, pit firing and low salt firing. She then invited students to her and her husband Don Bye's family farm to experience the primitive firing techniques firsthand, an exhaustive process that took all day Saturday and a few hours Sunday morning.

photo: upnorth
As artist Meg Bye looks on, Pequot Lakes ninth-grader Tiffany Darden (left) and senior Josh Trujillo place the lid on the primitive brick pit used to fire clay pottery at the Bye family farm. (Dispatch Photos by Jodie Tweed)
About 20 art students were able to spend most of their weekend at the Bye farm. They brought with them more than 200 pieces of pottery to be "cooked" in handmade kilns. Because the old-fashioned firing is so primitive, Guenther warned his students some of their artwork might be destroyed during the process.

"I've told them not to become too attached to their work before they actually get it home," Guenther said as he helped keep an eye on the firing pits. "This is very exciting for me. It's good for the kids to see what it was like before the electric pottery wheel and the electric kiln. Pottery has been around since the beginning of time. Crow Wing Power wasn't around back then to run our kilns."

Two different firings were left to smolder throughout the day Saturday, the blackware firing pit and the primitive brick pit kiln. The low salt firing process was done Saturday night as students gathered around the large bonfire.

photo: upnorth
Pequot Lakes art students included this tiny kiln god in the primitive brick pit to protect their clay pottery from breaking Saturday at the Don and Meg Bye family farm.
About six pieces of pottery were broken during the blackware firing process, which causes the surface of the clay to become jet black. The method uses a series of nested metal drums over a small fireplace made of bricks. Three small fires are then started in the spaces between the bricks and are kept going for about an hour, requiring constant tending. Then all three fires are added to until they meet and form a circle, and wood is then dropped between the space between the two larger drums. Sawdust is then added to color the pots black. The fire is left to smolder for about five hours.

The pit firing process is the simplest method of primitive firing. Bye built a brick kiln for Pequot students to use. The pots were placed on a bed of sawdust and cones of paper were placed into the combustible mixture, filled with charcoal lighter fluid. After the fire spread across the surface, a metal top was added, which causes the fire to start smoldering. The fire is then left smoldering into the night.

The low salt firing process is basically a big bonfire that bakes the pots as they are surrounded by flames. Students wrapped their pottery in organic materials, often called a "salad" by potters, which helps to create unique designs on the surface of the pottery. They used food, fish skins, dryer lint, hair and other organic materials wrapped tightly in shiny magazine paper with masking tape to make the unique patterns.

photo: upnorth
Pequot Lakes art instructor Dave Guenther explains the blackware firing technique at the Don and Meg Bye family farm Saturday.
In low salt firing, salt is sprinkled into the kiln, sometimes with copper, iron or cobalt salts and, along with the carbon, forms a fume mix that covers the surface of the pots.

"This is what I love to do," said Bye, who has been involved with pottery for the past four years. "I'm a practicing artist, meaning I just keep on practicing. I love the idea of participating with nature and taking the clay and making the fire work, not dictating, but being a part of it."

Bye's son, Dan, is a ninth-grader at Pequot Lakes High School. He also participated Saturday.

"My mom's into it so it's hard not to get into it," he said.

The primitive pottery created by Guenther's art students will be on display in the display case by the high school art room.

 

 

 

 

 


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The Brainerd Daily Dispatch, Central Minnesota's Daily Newspaper. Continuing The Weekly Dispatch founded in 1881. Published daily except six legal holidays in Brainerd, Minnesota by The BraInerd Daily Dispatch, a division of Morris Communications, Corp. The official newspaper of Crow Wing County. Offices located at 506 James Street, Brainerd, MN 56401. MEMBER OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS.


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