Justin Lambert (front right) and volunteers from the Cochise College Art Department inside the new wood kiln.
For nearly a decade, around mid-October, Cochise College and the Art Department have invited the community, local painters and potters, students, and artists from across the world, to celebrate the craft of pottery with music, dance and cuisine.
On October 14, the Cochise College Douglas Campus will once again blaze the night with flames, in what will be the 10th Annual Pit Fire Pottery Festival.
This year, to add to the celebration, the Cochise College Ceramics Department has invited Justin Lambert, a longtime ceramics artist, to bring something new to the Pit Fire Pottery Festival.
Lambert works as a studio artist and sells about 1000 pieces of artwork each year. For the past ten years, he has dedicated a portion of his time to traveling through China to cities like Shanghai, Jingdezhen, Xian and Beijing. He’s also traveled to Scaelskor, Denmark and all over the United States, to study his craft and lecture about wood firing. Over the years, he has become an expert in his field and enjoys teaching his techniques to students.
“If I saw a piece of ceramic art work, I could tell you what type of kiln it was fired in and what kind of wood was used to make it, but the average person couldn’t tell.” Lambert explained. “Wood firing is known to be a medium that requires a good amount of luck, but I don’t believe that at all. It is science, you know. Sure, there is a tiny bit of chance in everything, but more or less, I can go to any kiln, anywhere and with any type of wood, and get pretty consistent results.”
The ceramic artist has been visiting Cochise College since the beginning of October to help teach the Ceramics Department about wood kiln firing. They are also in the process of constructing and building a new wood kiln on the Cochise College Douglas Campus all before the Pit Fire Pottery Festival begins this Friday.
Justin Lambert and volunteers from the Art Department have been working almost fifteen hour days for the last week to build the new wood kiln. Made out of refractory bricks and kiln fiber, the new wood kiln sits right next to the ceramics building.
The design is called a tube kiln and has an extremely strong arch called a catenary arch. Unlike most wood kilns, this kiln is built with a smoke combustion chamber a technique that Justin himself has invented.
“The wood kiln combustion chamber is based off of a masonry heater,” Lambert explained. “Which is basically a fireplace that helps direct the draft in a way to promote sections to radiate high temperatures and consequently mixes with a lot of air. Without this chamber, the flames move very fast, which means the ash can accumulate on mainly the front side of the piece. Whereas with a combustion chamber, it slows the flame down, so the flame and ash kind of move all around the artwork, and the ash tends to be more evenly distributed and the pieces tend to have a more vivid color.”
Visitors who attend this Friday will see the new kiln blazing hot for the Pit Fire Pottery Festival. Justin Lambert will have his artwork on display, and the public will be able to gaze at the Pit Fire and the wood kiln blazing at temperatures over 2000 degrees.
The Mariachi Plata, Bluegrass Souls and Cirque Roots will provide music and entertainment on the main stage, while other local dancers and musicians will provide entertainment on a second stage. The evening will be full of non-stop movement and camaraderie that will ripple out into the community.
Peter Chartrand is a local potter in Bisbee, Arizona, and the former director for Potters for Peace, an international organization, which helps build basic water filtrations systems in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
“[This wood kiln is] actually a sophisticated tool,” Chartrand said. “Especially for this part of the world. So it’s a chance for local artists to take advantage of having it in the area and will probably bring in new artists. The Pit Fire has elevated the Cochise College Art Department and this kiln is one more step in that direction, providing more opportunity for local artists in the ceramics world.”
Tate Rich, the Cochise College ceramics instructor, said, “This is such an incredible opportunity for Cochise College. It takes a community of people to put the Pit Fire together. Take the new wood kiln; it will need wood added to it every five minutes. That means at midnight, someone will have to be down there, feeding the kiln. It takes a community to make this happen, and we are lucky to have an amazing community to come together and help out.”
The Pit Fire Pottery Festival begins October 14 on the Cochise College Douglas Campus at 5:30 p.m. For more information about the Pit Fire Pottery Festival and a list of the evenings’ performers, visit the Pit fire festival page.