Kiln Rooms

Kiln Rooms new studio

Work is now progressing on improvements to The Kiln Rooms third London open access studio at Copeland Park. This compliments Peckham Levels and Bellenden Road Arches studios. www.the kilnrooms.com

Emerging Potters – 24 July - September 2021

Susie Ramsay-Smith

A report in her own words

As an ecological potter, how can I develop a more sustainable methodology?

I chose this question for my MA Craft essay, because it concerns me that ceramics generally, isn’t a sustainable craft, (only glass making is worse). Mining resources (the farm mud I use to create pottery, is a vital eco-system for toads which are declining) from around the world for clay/glaze ingredients, transport emissions, plus the fuel to transport them and kiln fire, contributes to global warming. I’m exploring how to consider the technicalities of my practice and attempt to find a different methodology to address sustainability in ceramics.

Being a potter could be problematical, extracting raw materials from the farm and processing as clay and glaze. Toads prefer earthy, leaf litter and log piles for their burrows, which I avoid as I need heavy clay. This is constantly being renewed by chemical weathering of granites causing some feldspar and mica minerals to further decompose into clay minerals. Rocks are the basis of most of our ceramic materials and make up 75% of the earth’s crust.

When exploring use of clay nearby, I found brickmaking in Sussex flourished since 15thC, the potteries, brick and tile sites were all situated near the clay source. These community industries sourced local clays and sustainably coppiced wood. This proves predecessors used local resources environmentally, which I capture through my materials. Charlotte Pack, Phoebe Cummings, Adam Buick & Ai Wei Wei are other contemporary, ecological makers.

Generally, European potters (craft or industrial) use indoor, electric kilns with digital controllers, for ease, firing their pots twice, to bisque (partially fired, strong but absorbent) 1000¹C, secondly with glaze applied, ranges from earthenware, below 1200¹C or stoneware/porcelain above 1200-1300¹C. Although kilns are well insulated, some heat is given off, useful in a winter pottery drying pots on top, otherwise ‘eco’ is not a word listed in sales descriptions; maybe manufacturers would do more if requested by customers.

Outdoor wood kilns, used globally, are usually larger capacity, taking months or collaboratives to fill. According to Mark Hewitt ‘It’s inefficient, unpredictable, and inevitably polluting.’ Obviously, earthenware programmes use less energy, thus lower emissions, so reducing the temperature, is one way; many stoneware glazes fire successfully at 1200¹C, switching to a green energy provider is another.

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