Kiln

Andy Cleff slept on a pile of wood using a piece of clear plastic to shield him from the miserable drizzle. Greg Pitts, snatching sleep when he could, curled up in a folding chair next to the kiln. It was warmer there. Pitts tried to ignore the annoying kink in his neck as he loaded the kiln with more firewood. For 16 hours, Pitts, Cleff and two other ceramists waited, watched and loaded more wood. The last of the 20 or so finger-size pyrotechnic cones, designed to give a temperature reading, wouldn't melt despite the 2,350 degrees inside the 50-cubic-foot firing chamber.

Two University of South Carolina researchers have unearthed on Parris Island what appears to be the oldest European-style pottery kiln in North America. If the discovery holds up under scrutiny - and experts believe it will - archaeologists who study the colonization of the Americas might have to re- evaluate their theories about the role of Spanish settlements in the Southeast. Until now, historians and archaeologists had believed much of the 16th- century pottery found in North America had come from Europe or sites in Central and South America.

More than 1,000 pieces of redware pottery from the estate of potter Russell Stahl will be auctioned tomorrow. Stahl, who died in August, was the last of three generations of Stahls at the Powder Valley Pottery, in the hills between Hereford and Old Zionsville, on the southern border of Lehigh County. The pottery was started in 1847 by Charles Ludwig Stahl, who for 49 years ran the complex with three of his nine children: James, Thomas and Isaac. The pottery closed in 1902 but was reopened in 1932 by Thomas and Isaac Stahl after they learned that pieces they had sold in 1898 for six or eight cents had gone at auction to collectors for $2.50 and $4. Thomas Stahl died in 1942 and Isaac in 1950.

For artists who work in clay, creativity can involve as much muscle power as Eureka!-style inspiration. Rarely has this been more effectively demonstrated than in a video about Jun Kaneko called The Fremont Project. The video is an especially compelling element of a traveling exhibition of Kaneko's art now at the Reading Public Museum. In fact, there are two 20-minute videos in this show of 39 sculptures, paintings, and drawings. In one of them, Kaneko speaks. In the other, no one does, yet the creation story is so artfully revealed that words are superfluous.

The last conversation that Pam O'Brien had with her late father was about her desire to go into business for herself. "My parents knew how much I wanted that," said the 47-year-old Winslow resident. She said that when her parents died in 1996 they left her some money to fulfill that dream. "So, it's a tribute to them that I did this. . . . They knew about my desire to do something creative. " O'Brien, who had spent more than 25 years as an insurance underwriter, explored various arts-related businesses before deciding to open a paint-your-own pottery studio, All Fired Up!

With Eastern white cedar bark collected during summers in Ontario, and other offerings from nature - iris leaves, roots and vines - Sue Kolvereid of Berwyn weaves contemporary baskets and sculptural wall hangings. Using a Japanese Anagama kiln, Amedeo Salamoni of Oxford creates wood-fired pottery that retains the warm, natural colors and unique patterns formed by the flame and melted ash. Drawing on her travels in Asia and the American Southwest, Fern Wayne of Penn Valley designs and knits striking chenille jackets and other wearables that capture the beauty of different cultures.

The low country just east of the Mississippi River delta isn't much on frills, but Bonita Favre thinks it's a good place to raise boys. "There's lots of trees to climb and woods to play in and good people," said Favre, who, along with her husband Irvin, raised three boys and a girl here. Their second son went off and became famous, but he's about like the others, except with a football in his hands. His other distinguishing characteristic is uncommon stubbornness. "He's as hard-headed as he can be," Favre said.

Firing ceramics in a wood-fueled kiln is not for the faint of heart, says Tom Armstrong, a Kentucky-born artist who likes a few surprises now and then. Wood kilns, with their varying ash and flame, cause unpredictable results in Armstrong's hand-built cauldrons, adding a splash of black here or a touch of brown there and giving him a flutter of anticipation every time he opens the kiln door. "There's lots of risk," said the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts graduate about the goings-on in his 15th-century-style oven.

For Beverly Thomas, a participant in the coming pottery show at the Perkins Center for the Arts, the event is both a sales and learning opportunity. Although Thomas' profession is nursing - she works at the Malberg School in Cherry Hill - for the last 20 years her avocation has been making pottery. This will be her second year participating in the show, a prospect the Haddon Township resident relishes. "With pottery, you never stop learning and experimenting, and with a show like this, with some of the best potters in the region participating, you can really learn a lot," said Thomas, whose specialty is free-form porcelain, objects such as vases, bowls and other containers she describes as "whimsical.

About four years ago, Carla and Tony Heald were searching for a place not too far from their Glen Mills home of about two decades, near the Delaware-Chester county line. They wanted a house on yet another beautiful, tree-filled site that also would have room for a large kiln to fire Carla's creations in clay. But they were having no luck in the hunt. Carla, who works under the name Carla Lombardi, says she was getting "sick of looking at houses for sale every weekend. " "We had to do something because I was also tired of commuting to a studio in Philadelphia several times a week to do my work," she says.

About four years ago, Carla and Tony Heald were searching for a place not too far from their Glen Mills home of about two decades, near the Delaware-Chester county line. They wanted a house on yet another beautiful, tree-filled site that also would have room for a large kiln to fire Carla's creations in clay. But they were having no luck in the hunt. Carla, who works under the name Carla Lombardi, says she was getting "sick of looking at houses for sale every weekend. " "We had to do something because I was also tired of commuting to a studio in Philadelphia several times a week to do my work," she says.

For artists who work in clay, creativity can involve as much muscle power as Eureka!-style inspiration. Rarely has this been more effectively demonstrated than in a video about Jun Kaneko called The Fremont Project. The video is an especially compelling element of a traveling exhibition of Kaneko's art now at the Reading Public Museum. In fact, there are two 20-minute videos in this show of 39 sculptures, paintings, and drawings. In one of them, Kaneko speaks. In the other, no one does, yet the creation story is so artfully revealed that words are superfluous.

Glass meets etchings in the form of Elvis, apple, and skull necklaces. www.etsy.com/shop/Chauncey Eileen Herbst likes candles. And stained glass. And dollhouses. And photography. From tiny roses made of polymer clay to machine embroidery, there isn't much the 53-year-old from Northwood can't do. Her range comes from a wide curiosity and an artistic bravery. "When I got into making candles, it was because I figured I was burning so many of them. I thought, 'Hell, I can do this!

It's quite an achievement, building nail-biting suspense out of a scene in which the only drama hinges on whether or not a kiln is hot enough to fire some clay. But Claude Gagnon, the French Canadian director who filmed his lovely, observant Kamataki in the countryside of Japan, does just that. The story of a young Canadian (Matthew Smiley), despondent over the death of his father, who visits his famous ceramicist uncle (played by the great Tatsuya Fuji) thousands of miles and social customs away, the film is about grief and learning to live again.

With Eastern white cedar bark collected during summers in Ontario, and other offerings from nature - iris leaves, roots and vines - Sue Kolvereid of Berwyn weaves contemporary baskets and sculptural wall hangings. Using a Japanese Anagama kiln, Amedeo Salamoni of Oxford creates wood-fired pottery that retains the warm, natural colors and unique patterns formed by the flame and melted ash. Drawing on her travels in Asia and the American Southwest, Fern Wayne of Penn Valley designs and knits striking chenille jackets and other wearables that capture the beauty of different cultures.

For Beverly Thomas, a participant in the coming pottery show at the Perkins Center for the Arts, the event is both a sales and learning opportunity. Although Thomas' profession is nursing - she works at the Malberg School in Cherry Hill - for the last 20 years her avocation has been making pottery. This will be her second year participating in the show, a prospect the Haddon Township resident relishes. "With pottery, you never stop learning and experimenting, and with a show like this, with some of the best potters in the region participating, you can really learn a lot," said Thomas, whose specialty is free-form porcelain, objects such as vases, bowls and other containers she describes as "whimsical.

Firing ceramics in a wood-fueled kiln is not for the faint of heart, says Tom Armstrong, a Kentucky-born artist who likes a few surprises now and then. Wood kilns, with their varying ash and flame, cause unpredictable results in Armstrong's hand-built cauldrons, adding a splash of black here or a touch of brown there and giving him a flutter of anticipation every time he opens the kiln door. "There's lots of risk," said the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts graduate about the goings-on in his 15th-century-style oven.

The last conversation that Pam O'Brien had with her late father was about her desire to go into business for herself. "My parents knew how much I wanted that," said the 47-year-old Winslow resident. She said that when her parents died in 1996 they left her some money to fulfill that dream. "So, it's a tribute to them that I did this. . . . They knew about my desire to do something creative. " O'Brien, who had spent more than 25 years as an insurance underwriter, explored various arts-related businesses before deciding to open a paint-your-own pottery studio, All Fired Up!

The low country just east of the Mississippi River delta isn't much on frills, but Bonita Favre thinks it's a good place to raise boys. "There's lots of trees to climb and woods to play in and good people," said Favre, who, along with her husband Irvin, raised three boys and a girl here. Their second son went off and became famous, but he's about like the others, except with a football in his hands. His other distinguishing characteristic is uncommon stubbornness. "He's as hard-headed as he can be," Favre said.

Making earthenware is an old skill that dates to the ancient Mediterranean world. From there it was carried to Western Europe. Then, in the 18th century, it was transported across the ocean to colonial Pennsylvania by German immigrants from the Rhine Valley. The center of pottery making in the colony was the upper region of Bucks and Montgomery Counties. From then until well into the 19th century, people in the area were largely dependent upon pottery products as tableware.