THE art of firing pottery can be an exhausting experience, Sarah Hudson reports.
Weight loss, sleep deprivation and physical injury aren't usually associated with pottery.
But for internationally renowned artist Robert Barron, who is based among the sweeping green hills of Kardella, in South Gippsland, pottery is an extreme sport.
Twice a year Robert fires up his kiln, which is one of the largest in Australia, where he works about 22 hours a day for five days straight next to the 1350C white heat required to bake his creations.
And this month Robert is firing his kiln, with the results of this intense period of work on display at his Gooseneck Pottery open days on December 6-7.
"The firing is a very exciting time because it's the culmination of many months of work," he says.
"I have a team that helps me but while I'll have three to four people on at any one time I have to keep an eye on things and so I generally will get about two hours sleep a day in that period.
"You get to a stage where it's very hard to keep a clear head. The heat is intense; it's like a sauna.
"We all wear protective gear but I have had the odd hole in my glove from the heat."
Like everything Robert touches, the 14-metre long kiln is a meticulous creation.
Back in the 1980s he spent time in Korea and Japan - the centuries-old home of high-fired stoneware - in order to replicate their kilns.
Prior to this he travelled for five years through Canada, the US and Europe soaking up their pottery traditions, particularly the craft revival style of the 1960s and '70s, through apprenticeships and art schools.
But his love of pottery dates even further back, to his childhood, when he built miniature kilns in his backyard, inspired by his mother - also a potter.
Today his jugs, teapots, mugs, bowls, baking dishes, platters and assorted creations are an amalgam of these earlier influences.
Robert's defining style comes from the kiln's intense heat, which comes from burning about 30 cubic metres of wood - mainly cypress pine.
"Wood ash melts on to the pottery and the results vary greatly depending on the way the flame licks the pot, the atmosphere of the kiln, the type of clay and timber, from warm gold colours to blues and greens," he says.
Robert spends about three months of the year travelling as a guest lecturer, pottery judge and exhibitor, with his diary booked up to 2010.
His pieces are on display in art galleries from Bendigo to Shepparton and Canada to Italy.
While Robert has managed longevity in a career many have found difficult to sustain, he sees a revival of the tradition.
"I think people have become bored by the uniformity of industrial production," he says. "Wood-fired pottery is the antithesis of that."
Gooseneck Pottery, 60 Kardella Rd, Kardella.
