My friend and colleague Sandeep Manchekar owns a large piece of land in Maharashtra, India, and runs a ceramic studio called Anvi Pottery, where he builds gas kilns and teaches wheel throwing and glaze making courses throughout the year. His studio has differently sized gas kilns and a Fred Olsen fast fire for wood firing. He became interested in building a bigger wood-fired kiln – specifically, a train kiln for efficient use of fuel, and to be able to fire sculptural forms up to four feet tall. Knowing my experience in both designing and firing wood kilns, Sandeep reached out to me to start a collaboration in which I would design a kiln according to his specifications and needs, and he would build it from that design. This kiln was named Gamanvi and was built in November 2023. It has been fired several times successfully. In this article, I will share the design process as informed by two decades of experience visiting and firing thirteen different types of kilns in eight studios over the four continents of Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America.
