Kjærrahvalen Wood Firing

My initial feelings are of extreme excitement and thrill at what to expect. I'm eager to experience the landscape, the language, the community feeling and learn as much as possible. We'll be using ash glazes, learning how to stack the kiln, using wadding we're both making and from foraged seashells and taking shifts to stoke and observe the fire for 7 days. 

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I am also very daunted. I have some experience travelling on my own, however mostly through English speaking countries. I know most Norwegians speak excellent English, nevertheless I'm daunted. I have to find my way from Oslo airport to this national park and have no idea really how to do that, but I'm sure I'll figure it out. Trusty Google will sort me out. Another reason I'm overwhelmed and daunted is the three-weeks of close-quarter living (camping really) and socialising. I'm an introvert with a quick-to-run-out battery so I'm hoping there's chances to walk and swim and be on my own without being rude. 

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This page will be updated post-trip. 

Wish me luck.

From day one, I fell in love with Norway. I was picked up at the airport by Anne-Siri, the mother of the firing's organiser, Lillann. She got out of her car and gave me a massive hug and I instantly felt safe and at ease despite weeks of building anxiety. 

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She took me to her home, gave me lunch and coffee and we packed her car full of camping gear, pots, blankets and food. From there we visited Kistefos Museum and I met Lillann as she works as a guide. It set the tone for the coming three weeks - exquisite art, extreme generosity and kindness and a lot of laughing. Lillann and her mum have the same bursting laugh.

 

The drive to Kjaerra Fossepark was beautiful though I admit I did have a nap after my 3am start that morning. We set up camp when we arrived, I found my spot in the cabin on site and we waited for the new arrivals. 

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I won't go into a play-by-play, but suffice to say I've never worked so hard in my life and I don't think any Christmas or birthday even comes close to the excitement of opening an Anagama kiln. 

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I showered once while at the park (thanks to a local school teacher letting us use their facilities and also giving us cake while we waited), I cleaned my clothes once during the week we were waiting for the kiln to cool (I only had 4 t-shirts, 1 pair of shorts and jeans and 4 pairs of socks... it was a bit of an oversite to bring so few clothes but I DID bring a lot of pots). 

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My new friend from Finland, Sofia, and I ate pasta every night for the whote trip and got very good at foraging for wild strawberries and raspberries. We swam in the fjord every few days too, with an occasional rinse of our socks if the weather was warm enough to dry them. 

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I kept a journal throughout the time and the overwhelming majority of statements were about how lucky I felt, how much I was learning and how much I was growing to love all the firing members and how insirpiring they all are. 

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SCHEDULE

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Week 1: making new pots (hand building and on the wheel), meeting everyone and glazing/preparing the pieces followed by preparing the kiln and stacking it. We went through phases of 'this isn't all going to fit' to 'MAKE MORE POTS TO FILL IT'. The prep also didn't seem like it should take that long, but it really did take a week to stack and it was hard work made harder by the mosquito infestation. 

 

Week 2: FIRING. Lifting and shifting endless wood; featuring me learning to use a chainsaw and axe and being dubbed the camp's strong woman. I've found a new love of wood splitting. Shifts began in earnest on Sunday night at 11.59pm. I was honoured to light the kiln, being the newest and least experienced. 4 hours of stoking plus 2 hrs of wood work every day for 6 days. 

 

Week 3: Time off - the kiln needed cooling for 6 days post firing, so we were able to rest and recover. I tagged along with a group of others down to Farsund and Risor (south) where we visited Ole Morten's workshop as well as Trond Skog's, stayed with incredibly wonderful and generous people (Jan Christian), ate real food, showered every day and obsessed over more pottery. It's such a treasure to spend time with other potters and talk about our passion for so long, unhindered. Geeking out over texture and chemistry and ethos. 

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The final few days were opening the kiln, cleaning the kiln, selling the new work at a market and the eventual goodbyes. I wasn't able to sell any work - I am not ready to part with them but I did trade some with other potters. 

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It was a lot harder to leave than I anticipated. I was so excited to be home, see Ernie and Hugo and be clean and rested, but so reluctant to say goodbye to these beautiful people and our little life in the park. 

I'm extremely proud of myself. I feel a lot braver than before I left, I feel stronger and so invigorated. The life of a potter is hard and meeting the older established potters of Norway showed it stays hard but is extremely fulfilling and beautiful. I'm so inspired, so full of love and admiration for the people I met and fired with and so ready to take on more challenges. 

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I'm determined to stay in touch with people, to jump at opportunities to do firings and actually invest in this as my career. I find it very hard to justify the expense of learning new pottery techniques, but this has really proven worthwhile purely from a learning perspective let alone personal growth and relationship building. So I endeavour to sink a little more money into learning and expanding my skills. I'm already booked onto another firing in September.... Stay tuned. 

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I definitely need to recuperate my bank account to do this though - Norway is EXPENSIVE. I'll try sell as many pots as possible over the coming months. 

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My thoughts on wood-firing are still percolating and the words themselves are hard to find, but overall it feels deeply rooted in history, deeply primal in the process, extremely reliant on community and a shared goal. The work itself is such an incredible physical story of flame and chemical reactions mixed with human creativity and humble ambition. Pottery has always felt like alchemy to me but wood firing in particular exemplifies this. Works that went in unglazed and basic come out with a whole story of chemical and physical forces written all over them. I can't quite figure out how to express it. 

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Potters love wood fired pots more than anyone else it seems - it's sort of an 'if you know, you know' craft, but I hope anyone who picks up a wood fired pot can feel a bit of the extreme work and passion that is imbued in these pieces.