ŠTony Ferguson, 2004, 2005

News:

●Recent recipient of a second ARAC McKnight Award for further pursuing clay and glaze development with larger scale works

 

2 Workshops:

Location:  The Village Ranch--13637 60th St. SW, Cokato, MN 55321

●Small Anagama kiln building workshop Thursday October 19 to Sunday October 22
$400 (includes housing) Introductions, design concepts, excavation, laying the foundation, building the re-useable arch form, setting the form on the foundation, laying the arch brick/creating side stoke holes/peeps, removing the form, adding/building the stack, covering the arch form with insulating protective cover, curing the kiln.

●Glazing/Firing Workshop Thursday Nov 9th - Sunday November 12th
$400 (includes housing) Glazing for the wood kiln/wadding, stacking concepts and fire is like water, loading the kiln, setting up the shifts, firing around the kiln, end of firing reduction techniques.

●Kiln opening Saturday November 18th 12:00 noon--pubic invited.

Both workshops $650 (includes housing--you will be [your option] staying in a house on site with the instructor) 9 spots available.   Registration for either or both workshops:  send a check to Tony Ferguson, 315 N. Lake Ave. Apt 312, Duluth MN  55806  include your contact information.

The Village Ranch fine art program under the guidance of Tom Spudic will be hosting a very special event to develop and broaden its positive and life lasting effects on students. Studio artist/educator Tony Ferguson will lead a very unique ancient technology workshop that will benefit current and future students of the Village Ranch. What is this ancient technology? Tony and workshop participants will build a hybrid anagama ("one chamber" in Japanese) wood fired kiln where participants will learn every aspect of how to build and fire this ancient kiln design based on Ferguson's kiln see http://tonyferguson.net/glazingloading.htm and http://tonyferguson.net/kilnopeningoct2005.htm  After the kiln is completed and cured, Ferguson during the second phase of the workshop, will guide students in how to fire their pottery and sculptural works during the inaugural firing of the kiln where flame and ash becomes a painter's brush affecting every aspect of the clay surface. What is an anagama? This type of wood kiln with its origins in Japan, China, and Korea provides unique opportunities to enhance a pot or sculpture's surface in ways that can not be reproduced in any other firing environment--thus lending participants to serendipitous opportunities for their work to become something beyond expectation or as the Zen Buddhists say, the "The Happy Accident." Ferguson's design, modeled after Mike Weber's rocket man, Shiro's small anagamas, and kilns he fired and saw in Korea, is easy to fire and can be fired by one person alone. Art work that emerges from the kiln after many days of hard labor, teamwork and coordination (cutting & stacking wood, loading the kiln, firing the kiln) has experienced 30+ hours of torrential flame, fire and air borne ash which affects the surface aesthetics in very unique and uncontrollable ways at 2340 degrees Fahrenheit and hotter. Among many related things, Ferguson will also discuss traditional and modern ways to utilize technology to aid the wood-fire artist in his or her artistic pursuits.  If you are interested in more information/registration about this workshop event open to non-artists and artists alike, please contact Tony Ferguson at fergyart@yahoo.com  or 218.727.6339

    

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