Monday, June 25, 2007

Aso per Glumso revisited



In 1964, after leaving Japan Fred Olsen found himself in Denmark. He had ridden his motorcycle across Asia and Europe headed back home to California. After a short stint at Royal Copenhagen, he set up a studio near the home of painter Clifford Wright and his wife, Danish writer Elsa Gress. Fred built a studio of slabs left from trees milled for lumber from a local operation. His clay was delivered from the Kahler factory where he did piece work in exchange. Forty years later we visited the old studio site to see it still standing, and being used to house goats. An old kiln brick and part of setting post were found on the ground. At the house next door, the former home of Clifford Wright and Elsa Gress, Fred was surprised to find an old jug he had made at the old studio sitting in the window. It had been broken in half and glued back together. The kiln was the first two chamber wood fired kiln built in Denmark. A picture of the kiln can be seen in The Kiln Book written by Fred Olsen. Aso per Glumso is only a short distance from Skaelskor where the Nordic Woodfire Marathon 2007 took place.

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