Around 3,500 years ago, Chinese potters began to fire their pots in kilns that became hot enough to melt the wood ash into glaze on the surfaces of their pots and to vitrify the clay tob hard enough to hold water. In the 5th century, the anagama kiln (窖窯) was brought to Japan from China via Korea. An anagama (a Japanese term meaning "cave kiln") consists of a firing chamber with a firebox at one end and a flue at the other. On Vancouver Island we use a multi-chamber version of the Angama called Noborigama.

Rak ware is taken from the kiln while they are still glowing red hot and carefully placed in combustible materia, such as sawdust or newspaper. This technique is used to starve the piece of oxygen, which creates a myriad of colors within the glaze. This technique was first developed in 16th-century Kyōto by the potter Chōjirō, who was commissioned by Zen tea master Sen Rikyū to design wares expressly for the tea ceremony

Gas firing was invented in the 1800’s to mimic the high temperature reduction type firing that is created with wood-fired kilns. In reduction firing when the oxygen in the environment has burned up, the fire takes oxygen from the glazes, transforming them into varied and interesting colours.

Salt Glazing pottery began in Germany around 1400. Its popularity spread across Europe to England, making its way to Colonial America in the 1600's.. a glaze of glossy, translucent and slightly orange-peel-like texture which was formed by throwing common salt into the kiln during the higher temperature part of the firing process. Sodium from the salt reacts with silica in the clay body to form a glassy coating of sodium silicate.