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I. Mill Pond Studio & Gallery |
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 | | © Wendy Bermingham |
I. Mill Pond Studio & Gallery (formerly Ron Lockhart Gallery).125 Millpond Road, between lines 6 & 7, north of the Horseshoe Valley Rd. Guest artist: Wendy Bermingham is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art.She creates vibrant oil paintings of flowers and gardens a subject close to her heart. 905-837-2467 or 705-835-2004 Guest: Norm Wheeler will be offering a range of wood fired work for the home and garden. 705-835-3815 |
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Work by Norm Wheeler |
| Onggi Jar |
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Norm Wheeler explains the process behind his beautiful pieces: "I want to produce a surface which proclaims the relationship between fire and clay...the pot is a testament of what happens within the kiln over the thirty to forty hours of a firing. I single fire raw, unglazed clay forms in a kiln designed to allow the flame to move over, under, around and between the vessels placed within. This flame carries wood ash and other combustion by-products to the pots where they adhere and in time melt to produce the desired surface. |
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| Tea Bowl |
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Individual pots are placed within the chamber on their sides; leaning against one
another; piled upon one another such that the fire moves over and through the setting.
Each individual pot determines what happens to its neighbors. Its all to do with
managing the path of the fire as it draws ash and combustible though the kiln. Color,
pattern, and texture are the product of this placement as this ash settles upon
revealed surfaces and goes through the melt mandated by the fire.
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Fire & Clay Come Together in the Kiln |
| Onggi Jar |
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There are smoother almost even areas where clay flashes in response. There are rough coarse places where ash has accumulated and has begun to variously melt perhaps even flow if there has been sufficient heat. There are sections where the surface is in shadow and little appears to have happened. Dark rich colours exist where there is a deficiency of oxygen while a softer more pastel palette thrives where there is an abundance. Some pots warp, deform, beneath the weight of those upon them. Some perhaps even split apart as one surface is heated more than the other. All of these could be viewed as faults in the work, this is not the case. These are the visual evidence of what happens within a kiln as clay is exposed to fire. |
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A Dragon Lurks in the Firebox |
| Onggi Jar |
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To fire this way is to create a living dragon of fire, which winds, pours its way through the pots within the kiln. Towards the end of a firing you can see this dragon as it emerges from the chimney some 23 feet from its birth place in the firebox. You can hear it roar as it reaches maturity. You can smell it on the wind but most of all you can see it's passage on the walls of the pots...the marks of the fire. |
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| Teabowl |
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To view these pots is to begin to read the narrative of any firing, for each is a landmark along the way. I create these pots to compose and to begin to understand this
narrative. I am enthralled with this. This, for me, is to fire
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