The Gulf Coast Kiln Walk Society invites the public out for a special event Saturday, the Wood Stoke Pottery and Kiln Festival at Holley Hill Pottery, 7507 Buckeye Drive, Holley-Navarre. Come witness roughly 1,200 ceramic works, created by both internationally recognized artists and high school students alike, pulled from two massive wood-fire pottery ovens fired only once a year.
It will be a day of food for the soul and the belly as first, attendees are invited to view and help unload the “Southern Groundhog” and 32-foot Anagama kilns. Second, wood-fired pizza as well as seafood gumbo, chili, cornbread and other specialty dishes are available for sampling with a contest to follow for best dishes. A $10 donation also gets a commemorative 2016 pottery bowl.
While the massive Anagama kiln is a replica of the traditional Japanese version, resembling half of an enormous bottle lying on its side with a chimney at the mouth, the Southern Groundhog is a reconstruction, brick by brick, of the Ralph Howard Phillips kiln. According to the GCKWS booklet, the kiln was built in the early 1940s in Jay. Phillips and his wife, Abby Johnson Phillips, produced jugs, churns, crocks, garden pottery and folk art made from local clays.
The guest artists to the festival this year are Tom and Elaine Coleman, according to GCKWS President Brenda Stokes. For the fourth biennial Gulf Coast Clay Conference, culminating with Saturday’s festival, these master potters share “their experience and philosophy on working as clay artists for the last 45 years,” according to Stokes. Their work has appeared in the Smithsonian Institute American Art Museum and the Portland Art Museum.
What:
- the Wood Stoke Pottery and Kiln Festival, featuring kiln dedication and unloading
Where:
- 7507 Buckeye Drive, Holley-Navarre, at Holley Hill Pottery
When:
- Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Cost:
- free to attend, $10 donation to sample the donated food and for a commemorative 2016 bowl
Want to go?
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Public invited to pottery festival Saturday