The Kon Tiki Stoke

Help me Lord I’ve done it again! I am in a show at Shane Norrie Contemprary and all of my pots are destined for one wood firing.  For our final Grad Show at USU Denny Gerwin and I had all of our work in the one big double wide train kiln. Gambling big time on one firing. No pay, no investment in the kiln but we had the good fortune to have a dream team of woodies at USU  who  had our backs BIG TIME.  You see this crew still at the top of the pecking order of pot making in the US. Here are some of the players- Trevor “Never” Dunn, “Mississippi “ Ernie Gentrie, Perry “Willie Nelson” Hass, Heidi “Landlady” Krietchet, Danny “Crumpet” Crump, Bobby “Freedom Fighter” Free, Alix “The Kid” Brodeur, and Jonnie Larson. If I have forgotten someone Denny please pipe in.

I remember the final stoke labeled the Kon Tiki Stoke. A huge wooden Kon Tiki sculpture that had been carved in the Sculpture Dept that was the length of the firebox maybe 5 or 6 feet long and probably close to 3 feet wide was lifted by Jonnie, Bobby, Danny, Denny, Ernie and Trevor into the firebox. Everyone was exhausted but laughing hysterically.

 We had a show at USU that John Neely titled”The Last of the Noughties” . Not sure if he meant we were disobedient, ill-behaved or bad or whether it was referencing the Gregorian calendar that began Jan 1, 2000 and ended Dec 31, 2009 our graduating year. John is very clever with words so I am sure it was a double entendre. I wish this crew could be assembled again for a firing at USU. I’m sure Logan, Utah has recovered from our presence there.  

I finally finished hauling the wood from the Amish and low and behold there was in the pile at the very end this rail post. It will be my final Kon Tiki stoke of the firing and I will be thinking of my USU  wood brothers and sisters scattered all over America continuing to be awesome.