Fired Up! Contemporary Works in Clay – Annual Show and Sale

What is Fired Up?
The first Fired Up! Contemporary Works in Clay was started in 1984 by the renowned Robin Hopper and Judi Dyelle who brought together ceramic artists to highlight the many ways of working with clay and to promote the understanding and appreciation of ceramics as an art form. The show consistently offers an opportunity for the public to meet some of BC’s best-known ceramics artists, and to have first-hand access to their work. Since that first exhibition there have been a total of 28 members of the Fired Up! group. The current core group consists of artists from BC and Alberta who continue to produce and exhibit exciting and innovative functional, decorative and sculptural work: Vin Arora, Alan Burgess, Samantha Dickie, Sandra Dolph, Peter Flannagan, Sandy Harquail, Gordon Hutchens, Cathi Jefferson, Miera Mathison, and Kinichi Shigeno. Each year, the group also invites various guest artists to exhibit their work. This year, 6 others will be joining the Fired Up! Members: Bronwyn Arundel from Nanaimo, Jackie Frioud from North Vancouver and Cortes Island, Katriona Drijber from Crowsnest Pass Alberta, Kristine Aguilar from Vancouver, Sarah Graeme from Denman Island, and Irene Ives from Colwood.

Fired Up! 2025: “Atmospheric”
The annual Fired Up! -Contemporary Works in Clay event is a highlight of the Canadian ceramics art scene. This year the theme is “Atmospheric” -exploring all aspects of atmospheric firing methods: reduction gas, wood, salt and soda, pit and barrel smoke firing, saggar, raku and obvara. Contemporary atmospheric firing techniques yield remarkable surface effects; vibrant and exciting designs and textures are imprinted on clay forms by dancing flames and drafts carrying ash and fumes from combustibles such as salt, soda, coal, gas, wood, sawdust, leaves, grass, straw, and other organics. Because these are burning, a reduction environment is created which starves the atmosphere of oxygen. This allows these fumes to interact with the glaze and oxides leaving chemical changes, carbon tracings and ash deposits on the porous surfaces of the ware. The magic of atmospheric firing is that it elicits varying responses depending on the chemical compounds within the combustibles and their interplay with heat, reduction, oxidation, time and the placement in the kiln. Each piece is unique and though there are some broad practices for encouraging certain effects, the results are largely random and unreproducible. It is true alchemy, and in no other ceramic process is there a greater collaboration between the clay, the atmospheric conditions and the artist in achieving these one-of-a-kind results.
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