Ash Bloom N.8

Chala Toprak’s Garden of Ashes II continues her exploration of transformation through the ancient Japanese technique of Anagama firing. In this meditative process, wood is stoked continuously for more than one hundred hours, its flames consuming each stack until only ash remains. Yet ash is not merely an ending—it is a quiet catalyst for rebirth, settling unpredictably across the vessels to leave behind rare and radiant traces of new life.

For Toprak, the process is as much spiritual as it is technical, requiring patience, presence, and a surrender to the forces often described as the “kiln gods.” When the kiln is finally opened, the results are not simply functional outcomes but moments of revelation. The ash reemerges as glaze, transforming and honoring each surface—its mark both a signature of fire and a vessel’s second life, revealed in full glory.