Historical information

Tony NANKERVIS

A graduate student from the Gippsland Centre for Art and Design (GCAD), Tony Nankervis has been a pioneer of the long wood-fired ceramics technique in Australia. He retired from lecturing at Southern Cross University after working there for 19 years in 2004.

He describes his work as 'one-off functional table ware', which includes highly-individualised everyday table items.

Nankervis prefers the pre-Industrial Revolution method of firing pottery, involving heating the kiln by burning wood for five days, to the modern, quicker methods using gas or electricity. The distinctive surfacing in wood-fired ceramics is generated by the ash and volatile salts from the burning wood. The wood ash and salts blush the ceramic pieces in the kiln, with finished work taking on the nature of the firing process, which has been described as painting with fire.

Physical description

Two woodfired earthernware cylindrical forms by Tony Nankervis.