Article 11: AMT’s Community Firing Sign-ups

It has been busy since day one of our work-week for 2025. AMTeam is very grateful to the filled-Studio Calendar as of to-date with workshops, firings and pottery engagements, Thank you for continuously patronizing and supporting our studio services.

Hatsugama is a Japanese word which means the “first firing” of a new built kiln.  Since I was trained in Japan and I am using almost all the techniques in our studio, we considered this as a celebrated day. All pieces inside the kiln are rare and special. From the starting date where we count the lifespan of a certain kiln, it depends on how frequent we fire the materials used to reinforce the entire structure.  It could last for about 10-15 years before we replace it. Hatsugama will happen only after those years. Thus, our studio anniversary was dated after our first fire set on our kiln - October 27,  2021.

Our studio caters to different Pottery Studio Services and Firing is one of them.  In fact, we can say that this is one of our strengths or best valued services which we keep up in a very fast pace which our ceramic community demands with minimal casualties, backlogs or delays.  Most of the ceramic pieces, either functional or sculptural that you had laid eyes on Gallery Exhibition Art scenes lately in the metro, were fired by the studio. We are humbly grateful to be part in the last process of crafting the vision of our upcoming best emerging ceramic artists in the Philippines. You may check the links below for the lists of our services.

 

Workshops: Single Session & Full Courses

https://amtceramics.com/collections/workshops

Firing Services: Bisque & Glaze Firing - Cone 6 - 10

https://amtceramics.com/collections/firing

Studio-Use Services: Guided and Self-Guided

https://amtceramics.com/collections/studio-use

Community Firing Sign-ups

https://amtceramics.com/products/community-kiln-firing-sign-up

Community firing sign-ups is a new addition to our lists. We believe this can help to explore more of  our knowledge with your pottery journey. When I had my apprenticeship in Kanayama-Aomori, Japan, this was the first thing I learned: firing a wood-kiln and that was assigned in Kamaba (kiln) Area for the first 3 months to learn all necessary steps prior to kiln firing such as kiln and furniture maintenance (shelves & posts); loading and unloading pieces, wood stoking preparation that was used to about straight 3-5 days of firing of climbing kiln, also known as dragon kiln. I had always been the firing crew ever since until I’d completed my 2-year apprenticeship.  The facility where I was trained holds about 2-3 sets of firings in a month using the traditional Japanese Ceramic Firing Techniques.

Learning Kiln Firing techniques are of completely different world from making or creating ceramic pieces.  Personally, this is a very critical process in making ceramics that can help a lot in making informed decisions for upcoming ceramic designs and execution.  Knowing how to fire can benefit one who aspires to become an effective potter, educator or instructor in terms of using time, energy and cost effectively.

How does our sign-ups go? Our studio has 2 sets of regular firing each week. Tuesdays are offered for bisque and Fridays for glaze firing.  For those patrons who regularly avail of our firing services, they usually do the glazing process in -between: Wednesdays and Thursdays being part of our Studio-use Services. All you have to do is book a firing shift schedule according to your preference thru our website.  We have two shifts per firing, i.e., 10 am - 3 pm and 3 pm - 8 pm. All our firing crew assigned for these shifts are knowledgeable and trained. You’ll be paired with one of our firing crew and guide you through the process.  In exchange for the hours you’ve spent on learning from us, you may bring 2 regular-sized bonedried pieces to have them fired while enjoying a free cup of coffee from our in-house Café as complimentary to saying “Thank You”.

It is a pleasure sharing you our new initiative service and be your best learning partner in your pottery journey. See you at the studio!

 

Written by : AM Trajeco

Edited by: MS Trajeco