One hundred and seventy-four attended the three day conference, Sturt Wood Fire 2008, held from 18th - 21st April this year. Delegates attended forums and individual presentations which explored the full range of issues central to wood fired ceramics. These included environmental concerns, marketing, technical issues, creative expression and cultural identity. As well, delegates saw presentations including surveys of wood firing from a diverse range of countries, including Egypt, Canada, West Timor, Germany, the USA and Japan. Demonstrations included firing the anagama kiln, performing tea ceremony, raku firing, and three of the key conference presenters demonstrated personal making methods.

In the week leading up to the Conference, three woodfiring workshops were held with tutors Yasuo Terada (Japan), Sandy Lockwood and Robert Barron (Australia), and Ron Meyers (USA) with Yuri Wiedenhofer (Australia) as assistant. The ogama, noborigama and anagama kilns were all fired at the same time, providing a unique learning experience for the thirty five students who took part in the firings. Two of the kilns were cool enough to unpack during the conference, with the third kiln being unpacked in the following weekend following the conference. View images

This was an important event for Sturt. In many ways, Sturt Pottery played a pivotal role for the development of wood firing in Australia. Ivan McMeekin established Sturt Pottery in 1953, and largely because of his extensive research and influential teaching, established a model for wood firing, which has continued throughout Australia until to-day. It was timely for an event of this size and significance to be held at Sturt. Although wood conferences are held every three of so years in Australia, this is the first wood firing conference to be held at Sturt. The combination of high quality exhibitions, stimulating discussion and a sense of historical significance provided an important marker in the sixty seven years history of Sturt. Overview of conference proceedings

Megan Patey
Head of Sturt
April, 2008