Courtesy of the City of Newberry
Hitomi Shibata wood fired plates.
Courtesy of the City of Newberry
NEWBERRY – The seventh annual South Carolina Clay Conference is back in Newberry this fall, starting September 16. The theme for this year’s conference, held until Sunday, September 18, is “Moving Clay Forward: Embracing Flame – Woodfire S.C.”
The three-day conference brings attendees from all over South Carolina to learn from three presenters, demonstrating their expertise in clay.
Marquerite Palmer, Newberry Art Center’s program manager, said wood firing is done in specially designed kilns and is the choice of some potters because of the prized and much sought-after appearance of the pottery fired in these types of kilns.
The kiln chamber in a wood kiln subjects the pottery to direct flame and ash build-up generated from the burning of wood as the fuel, Palmer said. The temperatures in wood kilns can be as high as 2500 degrees, fahrenheit. Many firings last 30-36 hours, though some potters fire longer to build up more ash on the pottery, she said. It takes at least a week to cool the kiln and be able to unload.
Participants of the South Carolina Clay Conference have the option to be part of a firing in Pendelton in October in an Anagama style kiln built by South Carolina “clay smith” Rob Gentry.
“This is an incredible opportunity for potters to be able to participate in a wood firing and use the information they have learned at the conference in Newberry,” Gentry said. “There is nothing like firing in a kiln like this and the results are beautiful and unique. The pottery forms the clay and adds glazes, then the kiln takes the work and turns it into something totally unpredictable and beautiful.”
This year’s conference presenters are Lindsay Oesterritter (Manassas, Va.), and Takuro and Hitomi Shibata (Seagrove, N.C.). Each presenter uses wood firing as the way they fire their pottery. Hitomi Shibata and Oesterritter are among the growing number of female potters who do wood firing. During their demonstrations, they will be discussing their experiences.
Hitomi and Takuro Shibata worked as potters in Shigaraki, Japan, which is one of the oldest pottery villages in that country. Hitomi Shibata has degrees in fine art and craft from Okayama University in Japan. Rotary International scholarship brought her to the USA, and she became a special student at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, Ceramics in 2002. She makes functional wood-fired pottery and sculptural ceramic work from N.C. wild clays, and fires wood kilns with her husband.
Takuro Shibata is especially interested in jar forms. Good jar forms have a richness of emotion or spirit. It has a functionality to hold things, but also a strong presence in space. He focuses on the outlines of the form.
Takuro and Hitomi Shibata first visited Seagrove, N.C. in 2003, and returned to the Seagrove area at the time Takuro Shibata accepted a position as the director of STARworks Ceramics in 2005. They established Studio Touya in Seagrove in 2007 and built an Anagama wood kiln. Takuro Shibata has developed a national reputation as a studio potter and as a wild clay specialist. His ceramic work and background story was prominently featured in the May 2017 issue of Ceramics Monthly magazine. He is a member of International Academy of Ceramics (IAC).
Lindsay Oesterritter is currently a full-time studio potter in Manassas, Va., making functional pottery. She earned her MFA from Utah State University in Logan Utah. She held the position of assistant professor of ceramics at Western Kentucky University (2009-2015) and earned associate professor in 2015. Oesterritter had the fortune to be a resident artist at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg and in Australia at Strathnairn Arts Association.
Oesterritter will be signing the book September 17-18 she wrote in 2020 titled “Mastering Kilns & Firing – Raku, Pit and Barrel, Wood Firing and More.”
The pottery of all the presenters, as well as the pottery of the attendees to the conference, will be for sale at the conference’s pottery market in the lobby of the Old Newberry Hotel, 1110 Caldwell Street, in Newberry, on Friday, September 16, from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m. and Saturday, September 17, from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m.
For more information about the S.C. Clay Conference and the pottery market, call the Newberry Arts Center (NAC), at 803-321-1022, or visit their website at www.southcarolinaclayconference.com. You can also visit the NAC website at www.newberryartscenter.com.
Call: T:803-276-0625 Address: 1216 Main Street Newberry, SC 29108