Margaret Sumich Specialist Tutor   I am a vessel maker: whether thrown and altered or hand-built using slab, or pinch-and –coil. I often use non-ceramic additions to my pieces to emphasize a point. I have been working on practicality and exploring the paradoxical relationship of size linking pieces of a sculpture and pieces which suggest functionality, and are totally functional except for one aspect in the construction. With this in mind I have been making anchorstones and their suggestion of stability and safety ; this is perhaps why I continue to work in clay with pieces developing more for the idea than the process.  My interest in wood-firing about 20 years ago with Raku firing: The exposure to wood ash and then smoke from the reduction created the random colours on the glazed surfaces, and in some cases natural lustres as well as textures.  I continue to enjoy firing with wood, and the random effects it produces in conjunction with textures, rather that the rigidity of applied decoration.  Some pieces have been fired to 1220C (Cone 6).in my small wood-fired kiln without additions to the kiln atmosphere: the remainder are fired in gas using the raku technique of post-firing reduction in shavings and paper.