Svend Bayer Wood Firing 6-Day Course £895

Woodfiring courses in 2025 with Svend Bayer at the University of Oxford.

£895, all equipment will be provided.

SAVE YOUR PLACE NOW £50

Your Eventbrite booking allows you to book a place. Once you have booked a place we will contact you to arrange a payment link for the balance of your course payment.

Courses Run:

23-27 April & 4 May

4-8 & 15 June

24-28 September & 5 October

This six-day course offers a unique opportunity to learn from Svend Bayer, a master of wood-firing with decades of experience. Participants will work with our newly constructed single-chamber kiln, built by Svend in 2023, to explore the complexities and nuances of wood-firing. Over the course, you’ll fire your own work alongside pieces from fellow participants, experiencing firsthand the transformative effects of wood ash, flame interaction, and high-temperature firing on ceramic surfaces.

The course is structured to provide a comprehensive understanding of the skills required for long-duration, high-temperature firings. The main session runs for five days, from Wednesday to Sunday, covering essential techniques such as kiln loading, wood preparation, and firing management. After a week of cooling, participants return for the final day on the following Sunday to unload and analyze the results, discuss firing outcomes, and prepare the kiln and wood for future use.

Svend will lead the course alongside Dr. Robin Wilson, project director of Oxford University Kilns, with support from experienced assistants. This is an exceptional chance to deepen your expertise and engage with the artistry and unpredictability of wood-firing in a collaborative and educational environment.

Wednesday/Thursday – Loading, wood preparation, organising your firing team

Friday/Saturday/Sunday – Firing

Second Sunday – Unloading and kiln maintenance

What to bring: 20 or more small to medium-sized bisque pots in stomneware clay, and any high-firing glazes you wish to test. It is very important that you use clays and glazes appropriate to a cone 12/high stoneware firing. If in doubt, you are always most welcome to ask questions about clays and glazes before the course.

In this kind of wood firing, much of the pleasure is gained by the interaction of the clay and ash with the raw surface of the clay body, so glazing is not always preferable or necessary. Document what clays you have used, and what glazes, if any you bring. The position of each pot within the large kiln makes a real difference to the results. Learning to document, understand and control the effects of a large woodfired kiln on the pieces you put in form a large part of this course. Of course, we can’t guarantee to fire all of your pots, but we will fire as many as possible.

There is free camping on site, with hot showers and kitchens, or you can arrange your own accommodation locally. There are a large number of local AirB&Bs.

Limited accommodation at our fieldstudy centre in the Woods is also available for those booking early in advance. Usually firing teams cook and eat communally on site, which we will arrange nearer the time.

Please ask us about our refund policy as we are not able to offer complete refunds due to the amount of preparation time needed for people to take up places on this course.

For help and advice, contact Dr Robin Wilson of Oxford Kilns.