thePULSEWorcester’s Hot FIREWORKS Studio
Chucking the paychecks and letting the fires of creativity burn.
Anne Dickinson, left, and Jill Burns display their FIREWORKS creations.
January 2004 – Imagine taking two or three weeks of your best works and stacking them all in a big box. Then you set a match to everything and hope for the best. Well, this is what Jill Burns and Anne Dickinson do each time they fire up their 25-cubic foot gas kiln at The Fire Works. The two first met several years ago while taking clay classes at the Worcester Center for Crafts. Dickinson was in management finance and Burns had been involved with arts administration for years. Both were, to say the least, dissatisfied with their situations in the corporate world and felt that there must be something better out there.
Burns had earned a degree in painting but had never pursued the medium. Dickinson, while acquiring degrees in business, had taken a few clay courses during her college career. Both originally turned to clay simply as a stress reliever and to help shake out the cobwebs. But each found that through this challenging medium the opportunities for creativity and personal expression were boundless, and they began to see pottery as a full-time career.
It turns out that Dickinson, a student in the WCC’s School for Professional Crafts, and Burns, a WCC artist-in-residence, were simpatico. They spent hours discussing their dreams of changing careers, opening their own studios, chucking the weekly paychecks, and letting their creativity flow.
Fortunately, their collective years in the corporate world had taught them not to jump blindly into a new situation just because it sounded nice. They began to plan a joint operation where they would set up a studio together, one physically large enough to have room for other like-minded individuals, and big enough to house a rather expensive gas-fired car kiln that would be used for soda firings – a glaze finish that both enjoyed working with.
One year later, after a market research survey, seeking information for hours on the Internet, and scouring the area for the ideal location, they settled on a well-lit, high-ceilinged, 3200 square-foot space in the former industrial site at 38 Harlow Street in Worcester. After a “little light carpentry” and a lot of sweat-equity, Burns and Dickinson recently opened their dream studio, The Fire Works. It is comprised of large production areas for each of them, as well as room for nine other Studio Member clayworkers. They have also made arrangements for a number of Firing Members, people who work in their own places away from the studio and simply pay for kiln space in the bi-weekly firings. In this manner, Dickinson and Burns can cover the expenses of leasing such a large space and owning and operating the soda kiln – one of very few such furnaces in the entire area.
As like-minded as they are about their jointly operated studio, Burns and Dickinson diverge when it comes to aesthetics. Burns’s stoneware ceramic objects are loosely based on traditional 17-18th century tinware, including clay variations on the inherent crimp and fold markings. Wheel-thrown and modified, these utilitarian crocks, condiment pots, watering cans, and other objects are all finished in a soft patinaed coppery green glaze — warm both to the hand and to the eye. One added contemporary touch is that many of her jars are closed with glass covers that Burns specially designs and kiln-forms.
Dickinson’s work is geared more for the home furnishings and designer/decorator trade. Her current series of lamp base designs is based on two distinct units, one conical, and the other pyramidal. Each of these shapes is slipcast with porcelain in plaster molds of her own construction. She then assembles the vertical bases with anywhere from a single unit to as many as nine or ten, depending on the intended use. These components are anchored with turned wood fittings and pedestals – also of her own design and manufacture. Dickinson keeps her designs simple so that she can concentrate more on highlighting the surface decoration with a myriad of soft-toned glazes.
The other on-site members work at their own pace, producing clay objects as varied as their individual personalities and abilities. Currently the plan is to have two open studio shows a year, showcasing the work of all the studio participants. Otherwise members are free to show their own work wherever and whenever possible.
So, if you think that fireworks are just for the 4th of July, think again – at Harlow Street they’re happening year round.
