Image: Jane Sampson at Mid Wales Arts
ICF 2025 is excited to be focussing on a sustainability theme for the next festival. It will include examples of low energy kilns, single firing techniques, work created from waste materials, kintsugi and traditional practices in Japan and India. Confirmed demonstrators include Euan Craig (Japan), Elif Ağatekin (Turkey), Yuliya Makliuk (Ukraine), Adil Writer (India) and Lisa Orr (US).
The carbon footprint of the festival will be reduced by including some virtual presentations, encouraging travel by public transport and car sharing, and reducing plastic and waste at the event.
ICF Sustainability Symposium
Friday 27 June in the Cinema 3 – 5 pm
The ICF sustainability symposium will showcase how ceramicists around the world are adapting their practice and developing new ways of working to become more sustainable. From low energy kiln designs, new clay recipes, working with reclaimed waste materials and new methods of re-using and reducing, the symposium will be an opportunity to learn how to become more sustainable and to become part of the discussion
The session will include an international overview of sustainability in ceramics, a focus on individual sustainable practice and developing community connections. Each speaker will give a presentation about their work, and then there will be an opportunity for questions from the audience to individual speakers and to the panel for discussion.
Panelist include:
Wendy Gers (Netherlands) – Wendy Gers (PhD) is a researcher and curator with a deep commitment to social and environmental justice. She is Professor, Art and Sustainability at the Hanze University of Applied Sciences in Groningen, the Netherlands and Curator of Modern and Contemporary ceramics at Princessehof National Museum of Ceramics in Leeuwarden.
Her keynote address in the Sustainability Symposium is entitled ‘Sustainable ceramics: moving beyond advocacy and green washing’
Jean Sampson (UK) – ‘I lived and worked in France or some years, making wood fired salt glazed domestic stoneware using waste wood from the neighbouring roofer. After a move and without space for my own kiln I got involved with the Oxford kiln project and was lucky enough to take part in firing both the large Anagama and the smaller test kiln. I became increasingly worried though. by the amount of wood used and the heat wasted, as well as the agony involved in packing and unpacking these kilns. Researching alternatives I came across the Girel 3e (Ergonomic, economic and environmentally friendly) , designed in France by Jean Girel, and have now built one of these kilns at Mid Wales Arts centre, Powys.
The MWA kiln is the first of its type in the UK. Designed in response to the climate crisis, it uses less wood and fires in less time than similar sized kilns. It also incorporates features to cut down on the smoke produced during reduction and the effort needed to physically load and fire the kiln.’
Yuliya Makliuk (Ukraine) – a ceramic artist, activist, and author driven by a passion for addressing the pressing challenges of our time: environmental crises, social injustice, and war through her practice.
Makliuk is dedicated to pushing the boundaries of ceramic tradition, actively exploring sustainable approaches and innovative techniques in her studio, ‘Here & Now Pottery’. She has been awarded the Risktakers and the CEC Artslink International fellowships for her work in sustainability and arts organizing.
Jodie Crook-Giles (UK) – a potter who also works on climate change programmes and recently completed a Churchill fellowship researching electric pottery kilns and firing practices.
Lucy Warry (UK) – Lucy’s practice integrates her background in environmental science and law with a commitment to sustainable artmaking. In her ceramics, she uses reclaimed/waste clay and avoids glazing, focusing on concept-driven work that prioritises ecological impact over material output. This ethos also drives AGNES, the artist-led sustainability network she has co-founded, to channel the collective creative power of artists toward reimagining sustainable futures, embedding environmental consciousness at the core of artistic practice.
Wendy Gers (Netherlands), Jean Sampson (UK), Yuliya Makliuk (Ukraine), Jodie Crook-Giles (UK), Lucy Warry (UK)
