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This story comes from Diane Levinson of San Jose, CA, a potter who was a dear friend and colleague of our mother.

There are a few pots in the back of the room, they are some of the last pots that Frannie made and fired. Their unusual finish comes from them being coated with ash and refired in a Japanese-style wood-fired kiln. That ash was some of Frannie's ashes. Now, let me tell you the story. Frannie had told me many times, as she told her family and anyone who might be interested, that after she died, she'd like to be made into a glaze and put on a pot. When her kids asked me to make a glaze from her ashes, I was just getting ready to go to do a wood-firing. I suggested that instead of making a glaze and putting it on a new pot, we take pots that Frannie had made and put them in the wood-firing with her ashes and let the fire and the kiln gods do what they would.

My friend Hiroshi Ogawa lives in Oregon and has a wood-fired kiln. Frannie met Hiroshi and was fascinated by, and drawn to, the wood-fire aesthetic. The wood-fire technique does not produce the uniform, predictable results of gas or electric heat, and Frannie loved that random element.  The fire burns and the flame dances inside the chamber where the pieces sit, and the heat and ash from the fire pass over the pots on their way out the flue. The complex interaction between flame, ash, and the minerals of the clay body forms a natural ash glaze. Given enough heat and time the ash will crystallize, forming a glaze with great variation in color, texture, and thickness, ranging from smooth and glossy to rough and sharp.

A group of potters gathers at Hiroshi's three times a year to do a firing.  It is a joyous reunion of kindred spirits and the process is somewhat spiritual.  Firing a wood-fired kiln takes several days of 24 hour a day attention and fire-stoking, and more than 6 cords of wood. The kiln reaches temperatures of more than 2400 degrees and takes over a week to cool. In early June, we gathered at Hiroshi’s. I painted the inside of the pots with some of Frannie’s ashes, we loaded the kiln, rang our gong, chanted our chants, and lit the fire. This firing took 94 ¾ hours. Coincidentally that is almost exactly Frannie’s age in years. On June 23, we pulled out these pots. I hope you all find them as beautiful as we potters do.