NCECA Cincinnati

(Gwelwch am y Gymraeg isod - See for Welsh below)

English/Saesneg

Well March hurried past like the white rabbit in Alice in Wonderland. I’ve recently returned with Simon from Syracuse, New York state but for now I want to rewind a few weeks previous to that. Back in mid-April, with generous support from the Arts Council of Wales ‘Wales Arts International’ grant for international opportunities, I attended my first NCECA (National Council on education for the Ceramic Arts) in Cincinnati. 

NCECA was founded in 1966 and is a non-profit organisation that fosters global education and appreciation for the ceramic arts. The annual conference takes place in a different US city each year and features dozens of presentations, demonstrations and exhibitions. This year’s event ‘Current’ was held in Cincinnati, Ohio. Apparently Charles Dickens, once said of this city ‘I have not often seen a place that commends itself so favourably and pleasantly to a stranger at the first glance as this does.’ The population has increased seven-fold since those days but if the mayor of the city’s puns at the opening ceremony are anything to judge the city by, I am won over. In visiting this far off favourable land I also discovered a new word: Ohio is the ‘buckeye state’, buckeyes being what we call in the UK ‘conkers’ of the horse chestnut tree. 

It was an intense week of meeting many new and old friends. The corporate environment of the Duke Energy convention centre felt a bit incongruous with the ceramics world, considering most people there felt at home in dusty workshops. It was great though to see how ‘Current’ had percolated through the city, with exhibitions in multiple venues, including ‘guerilla’ exhibitions, advertised through word of mouth or instagram, such as the ‘Past Curfew Pop-up show at Somerset bar. 

On the Monday I got to be on hand with the Artstream Nomadic set up. This gallery on wheels, a restored 1967 Airstream trailer gallery representing established and emerging contemporary ceramic artists, has been touring the country with pop up exhibitions since 2001. They dropped anchor in the main expo hall of the convention centre and while putting out the pots, I got to handle a whole lot of work by artists on the bill this spring including Simon (many pots from February's firing), Julia Galloway, Josh Deweese and Tara Wilson.

NCECA Expo hall

Artstream - unwrapping Simon’s pots

My programme was full and diverse, with talk topics ranging from ‘how to navigate growing old while working with clay’ to ‘clay commoning’ about how we can promote an openness and sharing of resources in the ceramics community. I was delighted that I got to hear one of my most recently discovered clay heroes Jack Troy recite his poetry and was mightily impressed with the candidness and eloquence of this year’s emerging artists. Joshua Beckett’s presentation about ‘Trauma informed throwing’ was illuminating. Having taught throwing classes back home in Dolgellau, I had never seriously considered how the level of experienced helplessness when beginning to learn to throw could perpetuate trauma in some people. Beckett suggested tools for restoring power and control to the learner during lessons, in order to think of the teacher as a healer and make full use of clay’s ability to mediate disconnection from the body. 

Fire without Smoke
One of my highlights was seeing Lisa Orr’s rocket kiln in action at Queen City Clay centre. As well as being a potter renowned for her fluid, richly coloured and decorated tableware, Lisa has been experimenting to create fast and clean firing ‘rocket’ wood kilns. She is currently working to create a low emission ‘permaculture pottery paradise’ on her property in Massachusetts.

Popular in permaculture, rocket stove designs have heat risers that can be used for various applications such as cooking food, heating water, or as seen here, firing pots. Although rocket stoves can take up more space than a normal woodstove in the home, they are much more efficient. Soot and smoke, the volatile compounds released when wood burns are usually blown out of the chimney in a normal fireplace but in a rocket stove they are sucked into an insulated very hot ‘burn tunnel’ where they combust. The air intake is also larger than a conventional wood stove which allows for a more complete combustion. 

The example at Queen City utilised an adapted old electric toploader. Electrical elements had been removed from the kiln and holes cut in the base and top for the firebox and chimney flue. Lisa was on hand with Uncle Mud (aka Chris McClellan) to answer our questions. They explained how scraps of wood (as opposed to cordwood - I’m told the kiln could fire off one banana box full of scraps) were gravity fed into a j shaped combustion tube made of galvanised steel and kaowool, where it burned sideways and then upwards.

This portable firebox was the most expensive piece of this design, costing between $500 and $600 but one could be built from bricks for a more permanent kiln. The solution to coal buildup was to have two stoke hole options, one at the top of the j tube and another at the bottom, so that you could alternate between them and allow in extra oxygen for a clean burning of the embers. Lisa fired her pieces up to cone 2 (1162C) and the work was ready to be unloaded 6 hours later. The kiln fires fast too, this one climbed to 980C in the first hour! Although the kiln could be fired much higher, Simon explained to me the problem then is getting an even heat distribution because of the clean burning. An option might be to adapt the kiln to be a downdraft design. If you are in the States and interested to learn more, Lisa is running a workshop at Sugar Maples Centre for the creative arts, NY in July 2023. 

To see footage of the kiln in action: Uncle Mud and the Rocket Kiln at the NCECA Ceramics Conference (odysee.com)

Rocket kiln firebox

Rocket kiln in action

Cymraeg/Welsh

Wel, brysiodd mis Mawrth heibio fel y gwningen wen yn Alice in Wonderland. Dwi wedi dychwelyd yn ddiweddar hefo Simon o Syracuse, talaith Efrog Newydd ond am rwan dwi isho mynd yn nôl rhai wythnosau cyn y daith yna. Nôl yng nghanol mis Ebrill, gyda chefnogaeth hael ariannol gan gangen ‘Celfyddydau Rhyngwladol Cymru’ y Cyngor Celfyddydau, mynychais fy NCECA (Cyngor Cenedlaethol ar addysg i’r Celfyddydau Serameg) cyntaf yn Cincinnati.

Cafodd NCECA ei sefydlu yn 1966 ac mae'n sefydliad dielw sy'n meithrin addysg fyd-eang a gwerthfawrogiad o'r celfyddydau serameg. Mae’r gynhadledd yn cael ei gynnal yn flynyddol mewn dinas wahanol yn yr UD bob blwyddyn ac mae'n cynnwys dwsinau o gyflwyniadau, arddangosiadau ac arddangosfeydd. Enw digwyddiad eleni oedd ‘Current’ a chafodd ei gynnal yn Cincinnati, Ohio. Dywedodd Charles Dickens unwaith o’r ddinas ‘Ni welais yn aml le sy’n cymeradwyo ei hun mor ffafriol a dymunol i ddieithryn ar yr olwg gyntaf ag y mae’r ddinas yma.’ Mae’r boblogaeth wedi cynyddu saith gwaith yn fwy ers y dyddiau hynny. Ond os yw synnwyr hiwmor maer y ddinas o’r seremoni agoriadol yn unrhyw beth i farnu'r lle ar, dwi wedi cael fy ennill drosodd. Yn ymweld â’r dalaith yma, darganfyddais air newydd hefyd: llysenw Ohio yw’r ‘buckeye state’, a ‘buckeyes’ ydy beth dan ni’n galw ‘concyrs’ y castanwydd yn y DU. 

Roedd yr wythnos yn un ddwys o gwrdd â llawer o ffrindiau hen a newydd. Roedd amgylchedd corfforaethol y canolfan gonfensiwn yn teimlo braidd yn anghydweddol â'r byd serameg, gan ystyried bod y rhan fwyaf o bobl yno'n teimlo'n gartrefol mewn gweithdai llychlyd. Serch hynny, roedd yn wych gweld sut roedd yr ŵyl wedi treiddio drwy’r ddinas, gydag arddangosfeydd mewn lleoliadau lluosog, gan gynnwys arddangosfeydd ‘guerilla’, wedi’u hysbysebu ar lafar neu drwy instagram, fel y sioe ‘Past Curfew Pop-up’ yn y Somerset Bar.

Ar y dydd Llun cefais y cyfle i helpu’r Artstream Nomadic sefydlu. Mae'r oriel yma mewn hen drelar Airstream wedi'i hadnewyddu o 1967 ac yn cynrychioli artistiaid serameg cyfoes sefydledig a newydd. Maen nhw wedi bod yn teithio o amgylch y wlad gydag arddangosfeydd dros dro ers 2001. Wnaethon nhw ollwng angor y tro yma ym mhrif neuadd expo'r ganolfan gonfensiwn ac wrth osod y potiau allan, ges i’r cyfle i gyffwrdd llawer o waith gan artistiaid ar raglen y gwanwyn gan gynnwys Simon (llawer o botiau o daniad mis Chwefror), Julia Galloway, Josh Deweese a Tara Wilson.

Roedd fy rhaglen yn llawn ac yn amrywiol, gyda darlithoedd a sgyrsiau yn amrywio o ‘sut i lywio heneiddio wrth weithio gyda chlai’ at drafod ‘sut y gallwn hyrwyddo didwylledd a rhannu adnoddau yn y gymuned serameg’. Roeddwn wrth fy modd i gael clywed un o fy arwyr clai a ddarganfuwyd yn fwyaf diweddar, Jack Troy, yn adrodd ei farddoniaeth. Gwnaeth gonestrwydd a huodledd yr artistiaid newydd eleni argraff fawr arnaf hefyd. Roedd cyflwyniad Joshua Beckett am ‘Taflu gan ystyried Trawma’ yn ddadlennol. Wedi dysgu gwersi taflu ar olwyn y crochenydd yn ôl adref yn Nolgellau, doeddwn i erioed wedi ystyried o ddifrif sut y gallai lefel y diymadferthedd profiadol wrth ddechrau dysgu taflu ysgogi trawma mewn rhai pobl. Awgrymodd Beckett technegau ar gyfer adfer pŵer a rheolaeth i’r dysgwr yn ystod gwersi, er mwyn gwneud defnydd llawn o allu clai i gyfryngu datgysylltiad oddi wrth y corff.

Linda Christianson

Kait Arndt

Tân heb Fwg

Un o fy uchafbwyntiau oedd gweld odyn roced Lisa Orr ar waith yng nghanolfan clai Queen City. Yn ogystal â bod yn grochenydd sy’n enwog am ei llestri bwrdd hylifol, lliwgar ac addurnedig, mae Lisa wedi bod yn arbrofi i greu odynau ‘roced’ sy’n tanio’n gyflym a glân hefo pren fel tanwydd. Ar hyn o bryd mae’n gweithio i greu ‘paradwys permaddiwylliant crochenwaith’ allyriadau isel ar ei heiddo ym Massachusetts. 

Yn boblogaidd mewn permaddiwylliant, mae gan ddyluniadau stofiau roced godwyr gwres sy’n gallu cael eu defnyddio ar gyfer gymwysiadau amrywiol yn cynnwys coginio bwyd, gwresogi dŵr, neu fel yn yr enghraifft yma, tanio crochenwaith. Er y gall stofiau roced gymryd mwy o le na stôf llosgi bren arferol yn y cartref, maent yn llawer mwy effeithlon. Mae huddygl a mwg, y cyfansoddion anweddol sy’n cael eu rhyddhau pan gaiff pren ei losgi, yn cael eu chwythu fel arfer o’r simnai mewn lle tân arferol ond mewn stôf roced maen nhw’n cael eu sugno i mewn i ‘dwnnel llosgi’ poeth iawn wedi’i inswleiddio lle maen nhw’n llosgi. Mae'r cymeriant aer hefyd yn fwy na stôf llosgi pren sy'n caniatáu hylosgiad mwy cyflawn.

Roedd yr enghraifft yn Queen City yn defnyddio hen uwchlwythwr trydan wedi'i addasu. Roedd elfennau trydanol wedi'u tynnu o'r odyn a thyllau wedi'u torri yn y gwaelod a'r top ar gyfer y blwch tân a'r simnai. Roedd Lisa wrth law gydag Uncle Mud (aka Chris McClellan) i ateb ein cwestiynau. Egluron nhw sut oedd sbarion o bren (yn hytrach na ‘cordwood’ - gall yr odyn yma danio oddi ar un bocs banana yn llawn sbarion) yn cael eu fwydo trwy ddisgyrchiant i mewn i diwb hylosgi siâp j wedi'i wneud o ddur galfanedig a chaowool, lle'r oeddant yn llosgi i'r ochr ac yna i fyny. 

Y blwch tân cludadwy yma oedd y darn drutaf o'r dyluniad cyfan, gan gostio rhwng $500 a $600 ond gellid adeiladu un o frics ar gyfer odyn fwy parhaol. Y datrysiad ar gyfer cronni lludw oedd cael dau opsiwn twll stôc, un ar ben y tiwb j ac un arall ar y gwaelod, fel y gallech newid rhyngddynt a chaniatáu ocsigen ychwanegol i losgi'r pren yn lân. Taniodd Lisa ei darnau hyd at gôn 2 (1162C) ac roedd y gwaith yn barod i'w ddadlwytho 6 awr wedyn. Mae'r odyn yn tanio'n gyflym hefyd, dringodd hwn i 980C yn yr awr gyntaf! Er y gallai'r odyn gael ei danio'n llawer uwch, esboniodd Simon i mi mai'r broblem bryd hynny yw cael dosbarthiad gwres gwastad oherwydd y llosgi glân. Opsiwn posibl fyddai addasu'r odyn i fod yn ddyluniad ‘is-ddrafft’. Os ydych chi yn yr Unol Daleithiau a hefo diddordeb mewn dysgu mwy, mae Lisa yn cynnal gweithdy yng Nghanolfan y celfyddydau creadigol Sugar Maples, NY ym mis Gorffennaf 2023.

I weld ffilm o'r odyn ar waith: Yncl Mud a'r Odyn Roced yng Nghynhadledd Serameg NCECA (odysee.com)