Wood Fired Pottery

Bea Gutierrez

Experience the process of wood firing in its simplest way. We will harvest clay straight from the Earth and add some Water. A magical, flexible medium will come alive giving shape to your imagination and inspiration. While the clay slowly dries with the Air we will gather some wood and will get a Fire going. We will place what we have formed into the living flames while sitting around the fire telling stories, listening to each other just like our ancestors”

Module 1 – THE TOUCH OF THE EARTH

Clay is a material that comes from the center of the earth and it has been geologically forming long before our lives emerged. We will tune into that awareness in a community setting while we let ourselves remember the ancient wisdom of making pots we all have. In this two hour class, you’ll have an introductory experience of harvesting, preparing and forming clay.

Module 2 – CLAY ON FIRE

Clay vitrifies with heat and with time. We will tend a fire to balance these two variables. It’s never simple and it takes a life long to learn.

Beatriz Gutiérrez González grew up on the island of Tenerife, Spain. Her journey with clay began in Scotland at age 28 and continued when she moved to America to study at Penland School of Crafts in 2010.

In 2018 she built a wood kiln at her home in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Bedford County, Virginia. Her work is available at her studio.

Artist Statement

“Being in relation with clay is one of the most primal experiences, a connection to the literal foundation of all things.

In my long walks around the woods where I live in Virginia,

I gather clay from this primary source and see the surfaces of my pots reflected.

Each piece is touched with feelings of nostalgia for my homeland and contains an element of influence from the precolonial ceramics of the Canary Islands in the North West coast of Africa.

My work is functional and is fired in a wood kiln.”