Ceramics

Green Fire: An Efficient, Sustainable and Smokeless Wood Kiln


Top to Bottom: Green Fire Kiln; Construction; Teabowl by Kusakabe; Kusakabe Firing; Untitled by Kusakabe; Keiko Fukai, Kusakabe and Alice Yabe.


Harvard University/Noble and Greenough School in Memory of Makoto Yabe
Built by pioneering kiln designer Kusakabe, Masakazu

Green is the New Crimson: the rallying call for Sustainability at Harvard

In pursuit of a greener studio practice, the Ceramics Program at Harvard launched a joint venture with Noble and Greenough School to construct an efficient and sustainable wood-firing kiln with the pioneering kiln designer and builder, Kusakabe, Masakazu. The position and relatively large size of the firebox and the tall chimney allow for effective combustion as well as ash distribution. It is the only smokeless wood kiln outside of California and Wisconsin in the US. John Dorsey and Nancy Selvage are committed to using this kiln as an educational resource to inspire a sustainable firing practice among local and regional students and professionals.

For more information, watch the short video narrated by Kusakabe, Masakazu below.

Firing Schedule for Summer 2011
August 4 - 7, 2011

Green Fire with Instructor Wayne Fuerst

Nov. 13: Wood prep
Nov. 14: Glazing 6:30 - 8:30 pm at the Studio
Nov. 18: Loading 11:00 am at Noble and Greenough
Nov. 19: Firing 10:00 am, Clean up at 11:00 pm. (Bring food to cook in kiln box for potluck)
Nov. 21: Unloading 12:00 pm. Clean up and set up for next kiln firing.

Fees:
Studio participants $35 and General Public $185 PLUS 5 cents/cubic inch fee for volume of work fired in kiln
(participants will share the available space)

Registration Form: pdf | word

Email Shawn Panepinto with questions at panepint@fas.harvard.edu.

Want to learn more about the studio and greenfire process? Then watch our 3 part video.

Kusakabe, Masakazu has researched, designed, and built many smokeless and efficient wood-fired kilns in Asia, Europe, Canada, and California. The Harvard/Noble and Greenough kiln will be his latest design and a unique contribution to the renaissance of wood burning kilns in the United States. Kusakabe’s kilns produce traditional ash-glazed surfaces in relatively short firing cycles with no smoke. He is the co-author of "Japanese Wood-Fired Ceramics", Krause Publications, 2005.

Nancy Selvage, former Harvard Ceramics Program Director, met Kusakabe in Japan in 2008 and invited him to give a kiln building workshop at Harvard in June 2009. Since the Ceramics Program's anticipated move to a new location had been delayed, Selvage was looking for a partner institution that could provide a good site for the workshop and a good long-term home for the kiln.

John Dorsey, the ceramics instructor at Noble and Greenough, was very excited by the idea of hosting the kiln building workshop and quickly obtained permission and support from the administration and buildings and grounds. All but the chimney of the kiln was completed by a collaborative crew under Kusakabe’s direction during a series of marathon construction sessions June 12–15, 2009.

Makoto Yabe: Noble and Greenough is the ideal partner by providing another level of meaning to the joint venture. Makoto Yabe was a beloved instructor at the Harvard Ceramics Program and at the Noble and Greenough School. Several years before Makoto passed away, a friend gave him bricks for a kiln that he was never able to build. Soon after Makoto Yabe died in May 2005, the Harvard Ceramics Program used some of his kiln bricks for a temporary memorial kiln arch and lantern installation at the studio and his colleagues at Noble and Greenough built a memorial garden for him. Now Makoto’s bricks have been used to build the Makoto Yabe Memorial Kiln next to the Makoto Yabe Memorial Garden.

Press:
Nobles Fired Up Over Kiln, by Edward B. Colby, Daily News Transcript,
June 18, 2009

Location of firing:
Noble and Greenough School
Lawrence Auditorium & Makoto Yabe Memorial Green Fire Kiln
10 Campus Drive, Dedham, MA 02026
Directions to Noble and Greenough School: http://www.nobles.edu/home/content.asp?id=93

To learn more about Kusakabe, Masakazu
visit his website at http://www.miharuarts.com/kusakabe/index.php?page=home

Directions to the Ceramics Studio, 219 Western Avenue - a 15 minute walk from Harvard Square, down JFK Street across the river, past the football stadium, right after the track, behind 175 North Harvard.