The audio file for this article was produced by the Ceramic Arts Network staff and not read by the author.
On a crisp spring day in 2009, a potter and a painter arrived at their new property in Goshen, Indiana. It was a homecoming for both the Rothshanks: ceramic artist Justin and illustrator Brooke had grown up in the Goshen region before relocating to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to work in nonprofit development. Their goal for this new chapter was to establish livelihoods as full-time studio artists. For Brooke, this involved honing her skills through the challenge of painting in miniature. For Justin, it meant realizing a bold vision: constructing a wood kiln.
While in Pittsburgh, Justin helped build two tube kilns and spent nine years wood firing with mentor Dale Huffman. Drawn to the unpredictability of wood-fired surfaces, Rothshank had experienced firsthand the unique potential of wood kilns to build camaraderie through shared work and experience. Now, Rothshank pictured a wood kiln on the small hill next to their home studio: somewhere where he could support community-building and collaboration while developing his own voice in wood firing.
Building the Kiln
Construction began in 2010. Rothshank enlisted the help of two interns: Zach Tate, a Missouri State alumnus who had recently completed residencies in Taiwan and Denmark; and Craig Hartenberger, a current Missouri State student who met Rothshank at a workshop. The first step was sourcing materials. Rothshank uncovered sources locally and nationally: bricks from torn-down chimneys, a dismantled kiln from local potter Fred Driver, truckloads from Michigan and the Kohler factory, and 30,000 pounds shipped from Pittsburgh. Tate recalls chasing down leads on Craigslist and picking up materials in his old Chevy Colorado.
They built the kiln that summer. Rothshank’s chosen design drew on the book Japanese Wood-Fired Ceramics by Masakazu Kusakabe and Marc Lancet: a two-chamber anagama that required no steel, but instead relied on a catenary arch. The builders were joined by family, local potters, Missouri State professors Keith Ekstam and Kevin Hughes, and some international guests: Swedish artist Eva Zethraeus flew in with her daughter to pitch in. Although the builders had prior kiln-building experience, they admit that enthusiasm was a greater propellant than expertise. “Between all of us, we had the knowledge of about three-quarters of a competent kiln builder,” Hartenberger remembers slyly.
By October, the kiln was complete, and artists from Pittsburgh and Goshen loaded the kiln for its first firing.
Early Firings (2010–2014)
There was a sense of accomplishment mixed with anticipation during the first firing. Over the course of 60 hours, the team struggled to get the kiln to temperature. Early firings produced mixed results, but amid patches of pinholing and uneven heat, many of the pots were winners: “We got some real gems from the early firings,” Rothshank remembers. Interpreting the results and discerning needed adjustments required an adaptable approach. Hartenberger recalls how Justin’s curiosity in the face of challenges turned perceived setbacks into opportunities for experimentation. “Some parts of the kiln only got to cone 1, others to cone 6. Instead of rebuilding the kiln, Justin put low-fire or mid-range clay in that part of the kiln. He solved and mitigated those problems in a natural way.” The second chamber of the kiln became a laboratory where Rothshank experimented with low-fire soda application.
Following Tate and Hartenberger’s tenure as inaugural studio interns, Rothshank continued opening his studio to emerging makers interested in wood firing and production pottery. Seeking an immersive assistantship experience at Rothshank’s studio, interns moved to Goshen and became an integral part of the ceramics scene. Some had an affinity to wood firing: Ryan Taylor, Rothshank’s third intern, ravenously split wood and threw pots, enabling frequent firings of the anagama—while others, like Taylor Emery, were more interested in assisting with Rothshank’s electric-fired production line. Some interns, like Sadie Misiuk and Nathan Pauls, partnered with Rothshank to secure grants for craft apprenticeships through organizations such as Traditional Arts Indiana and Studio Potter. No matter their interest, all interns found their own way to join the region’s vibrant ceramics community, like Cindy Gibson, who assisted multiple regional potters including Mark Goertzen and Troy Bungart.
2012 marked the first Michiana Pottery Tour (michianapotterytour.com), where regional potters, including Rothshank, invited other potters to their studios to sell work. The tour offered pottery collectors and enthusiasts the opportunity to visit area studios and kilns, including Rothshank’s anagama.
Stoking Community (2015–2021)
Around 2015, established Michigan potter Troy Bungart and intern Sadie Misiuk from Detroit became core shift leaders. “Before Troy and Sadie became regulars, it was happenstance who showed up,” says Rothshank. “But once I could count on them as shift leaders, I could put together a firing crew with more confidence.” He credits Bungart and Misiuk’s people skills with growing the community and making wood firing accessible to multiple generations of potters.
After her arrival in Goshen in 2015, Misiuk participated in every firing of the kiln. She describes learning its unique quirks as spending time with a friend. “If you fire a kiln super often, you learn how it wants to fire,” she says. “You’re able to listen to it and know exactly what it wants. It’s definitely a relationship.”
With three to four firings per year, Rothshank was learning how the kiln ticked and making adjustments as needed, such as trying different stoking patterns and stoking from different kiln ports. Around 2016, he rebuilt the firebox and extended the firing time from sixty hours to ninety-six hours, further improving results.
Starting in 2017, the kiln became a site for regional workshops. Todd Pletcher, a Goshen native, came from Chicago, Illinois, to help facilitate regular Michiana Woodfire Workshops. Collaboration with Lillstreet Art Center in Chicago provided an opportunity for Chicagoans to experience wood firing.
The kiln also became a site for material and scholarly research. Throughout the firings, Goshen potter Dick Lehman noticed a one-by-two-foot area on the left side of the kiln that consistently produced interesting results. Soon, this area became Lehman’s usual spot, allowing him to respond to the atmospheric qualities specific to that section. Folklorist and author Meredith McGriff utilized the kiln for scholarly research by conducting on-site interviews for her 2020 book, The Michiana Potters, an investigation into the traditions, ethos, and aesthetic specific to the region’s clay scene.
During firings, participants stoked the kiln, ate together, and built trust through shared labor. Mornings brought cups of coffee, evenings were spent in lively chatter, and night shifts became meditative as the crew listened to the deep breathing of the kiln and the sound of rain. “It brings everyone into the present moment for the entire week,” says Misiuk. “It’s a time to shut out the entire world while we’re in the middle of the woods keeping this beast going—it brings the community together.”
Goshen native Trevor Daugherty describes the kiln’s experiential quality that gives it a unique place in the hearts of firing participants. “There’s something very specific about Justin’s kiln that’s comforting,” he says. “It’s a warm environment, and it feels like home to a lot of people. You come around the corner and down the steps, you smell the fire first, and then you see it, and then you see the people, and it’s kind of like a hug every time.”
Over the course of several wood firings, Daugherty brainstormed with Rothshank about how the development of a non-profit might support the regional clay community. Out of their conversation, the Northern Indiana Clay Alliance (NICA) was formed—a 501(c)(3) that serves to support clay artists connected to the area and preserve the region’s clay history.
Last Days (2022–2024)
By the early 2020s, the kiln’s days were coming to a close. The arch slumped, and years of firing had caused the walls to sag. Post-pandemic burnout, plus a change in Rothshank’s interests from wood-firing to soda-firing, softly signaled a shift in his studio practice. In 2023, for the first time, the kiln stood unfired for a year during a Rothshank family sabbatical.
The final firing of the kiln took place in April 2024, bringing wood firers together one last time. Then, after 52 firings, it was time to say goodbye. Over the next months, Sadie Misiuk and Nathan Pauls worked with Rothshank to disassemble the kiln, painstakingly removing, sorting, and grinding the bricks. The anagama’s deinstallation marked the end of an era.
But, for the dozens of potters who had participated in firing the kiln and the organizations that had sprung from its firings, the impact remained. Over 25 emerging makers participated in the internship program, and many continue to pursue clay afterward. Zach Tate went on to teach at the University of Arkansas. Craig Hartenberger established a sculptural ceramic practice. Some interns, like Sadie Misiuk and Taylor Emery, pursued full-time studio pottery, while others pursued arts administration, such as Cindy Gibson, who settled in the craft-rich region of Penland, North Carolina, and Mark Tarabula, now Studio Manager at Saratoga Clay Arts Center. Michiana Pottery Tour hosts over 50 nationally-recognized potters annually at 10 stops throughout the region, and NICA, now 125 members strong, serves as an organizational hub for the network.
Nathan Pauls notes the personal impact of the kiln: “It’s been the way that I’ve met most of my pottery friends. It’s had a profound effect on my community.”
Troy Bungart recalls how firings fueled belonging. “People would show up, finish their shift, and then stay for hours. Visitors would stop by day or night to see how the kiln was doing. Sometimes there were twenty or thirty people milling around and talking . . . the community involved was mind-blowing. And that really hooked me.”
Dick Lehman offers a perspective on how Rothshank’s kiln provided space for participants to learn and grow. “I see Justin as being generative,” Lehman says. “He involves people in what he’s doing—he invites you into his process to explore what that means to you and where you want to go with it.”
By fall of 2024, the kiln was gone. Through the winter, the kiln pad sat empty—a silent memory of the firings that had taken place.
Brick by Brick
Then, in summer 2025, sixteen years after Justin and Brooke arrived back in Goshen, a different truck drove into town, carrying materials for a new kiln. A small group stood on the empty kiln pad: Justin, Misiuk, Pauls, and recent Notre Dame MFA graduate Norah Ruth Amstutz. Under the guidance of kiln-building expert Ted Neal, they assembled a steel frame and stacked bricks in rows. Eight days later, a new train kiln stood on the once-empty kiln pad, with a chimney constructed using brick from the former anagama kiln. It stood anticipatory and receptive, brimming with potential and ready to welcome potters back again for years to come.
the author Alex Paat is a visual artist from Columbus, Ohio who interned at Rothshank’s studio from 2019 to 2020. He holds an MFA in Ceramics from Rochester Institute of Technology and serves on the board of NCECA. To learn more, visit alexpaat.com.
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The audio file for this article was produced by the Ceramic Arts Network staff and not read by the author.
On a crisp spring day in 2009, a potter and a painter arrived at their new property in Goshen, Indiana. It was a homecoming for both the Rothshanks: ceramic artist Justin and illustrator Brooke had grown up in the Goshen region before relocating to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to work in nonprofit development. Their goal for this new chapter was to establish livelihoods as full-time studio artists. For Brooke, this involved honing her skills through the challenge of painting in miniature. For Justin, it meant realizing a bold vision: constructing a wood kiln.
While in Pittsburgh, Justin helped build two tube kilns and spent nine years wood firing with mentor Dale Huffman. Drawn to the unpredictability of wood-fired surfaces, Rothshank had experienced firsthand the unique potential of wood kilns to build camaraderie through shared work and experience. Now, Rothshank pictured a wood kiln on the small hill next to their home studio: somewhere where he could support community-building and collaboration while developing his own voice in wood firing.
Building the Kiln
Construction began in 2010. Rothshank enlisted the help of two interns: Zach Tate, a Missouri State alumnus who had recently completed residencies in Taiwan and Denmark; and Craig Hartenberger, a current Missouri State student who met Rothshank at a workshop. The first step was sourcing materials. Rothshank uncovered sources locally and nationally: bricks from torn-down chimneys, a dismantled kiln from local potter Fred Driver, truckloads from Michigan and the Kohler factory, and 30,000 pounds shipped from Pittsburgh. Tate recalls chasing down leads on Craigslist and picking up materials in his old Chevy Colorado.
They built the kiln that summer. Rothshank’s chosen design drew on the book Japanese Wood-Fired Ceramics by Masakazu Kusakabe and Marc Lancet: a two-chamber anagama that required no steel, but instead relied on a catenary arch. The builders were joined by family, local potters, Missouri State professors Keith Ekstam and Kevin Hughes, and some international guests: Swedish artist Eva Zethraeus flew in with her daughter to pitch in. Although the builders had prior kiln-building experience, they admit that enthusiasm was a greater propellant than expertise. “Between all of us, we had the knowledge of about three-quarters of a competent kiln builder,” Hartenberger remembers slyly.
By October, the kiln was complete, and artists from Pittsburgh and Goshen loaded the kiln for its first firing.
Early Firings (2010–2014)
There was a sense of accomplishment mixed with anticipation during the first firing. Over the course of 60 hours, the team struggled to get the kiln to temperature. Early firings produced mixed results, but amid patches of pinholing and uneven heat, many of the pots were winners: “We got some real gems from the early firings,” Rothshank remembers. Interpreting the results and discerning needed adjustments required an adaptable approach. Hartenberger recalls how Justin’s curiosity in the face of challenges turned perceived setbacks into opportunities for experimentation. “Some parts of the kiln only got to cone 1, others to cone 6. Instead of rebuilding the kiln, Justin put low-fire or mid-range clay in that part of the kiln. He solved and mitigated those problems in a natural way.” The second chamber of the kiln became a laboratory where Rothshank experimented with low-fire soda application.
Following Tate and Hartenberger’s tenure as inaugural studio interns, Rothshank continued opening his studio to emerging makers interested in wood firing and production pottery. Seeking an immersive assistantship experience at Rothshank’s studio, interns moved to Goshen and became an integral part of the ceramics scene. Some had an affinity to wood firing: Ryan Taylor, Rothshank’s third intern, ravenously split wood and threw pots, enabling frequent firings of the anagama—while others, like Taylor Emery, were more interested in assisting with Rothshank’s electric-fired production line. Some interns, like Sadie Misiuk and Nathan Pauls, partnered with Rothshank to secure grants for craft apprenticeships through organizations such as Traditional Arts Indiana and Studio Potter. No matter their interest, all interns found their own way to join the region’s vibrant ceramics community, like Cindy Gibson, who assisted multiple regional potters including Mark Goertzen and Troy Bungart.
2012 marked the first Michiana Pottery Tour (michianapotterytour.com), where regional potters, including Rothshank, invited other potters to their studios to sell work. The tour offered pottery collectors and enthusiasts the opportunity to visit area studios and kilns, including Rothshank’s anagama.
Stoking Community (2015–2021)
Around 2015, established Michigan potter Troy Bungart and intern Sadie Misiuk from Detroit became core shift leaders. “Before Troy and Sadie became regulars, it was happenstance who showed up,” says Rothshank. “But once I could count on them as shift leaders, I could put together a firing crew with more confidence.” He credits Bungart and Misiuk’s people skills with growing the community and making wood firing accessible to multiple generations of potters.
After her arrival in Goshen in 2015, Misiuk participated in every firing of the kiln. She describes learning its unique quirks as spending time with a friend. “If you fire a kiln super often, you learn how it wants to fire,” she says. “You’re able to listen to it and know exactly what it wants. It’s definitely a relationship.”
With three to four firings per year, Rothshank was learning how the kiln ticked and making adjustments as needed, such as trying different stoking patterns and stoking from different kiln ports. Around 2016, he rebuilt the firebox and extended the firing time from sixty hours to ninety-six hours, further improving results.
Starting in 2017, the kiln became a site for regional workshops. Todd Pletcher, a Goshen native, came from Chicago, Illinois, to help facilitate regular Michiana Woodfire Workshops. Collaboration with Lillstreet Art Center in Chicago provided an opportunity for Chicagoans to experience wood firing.
The kiln also became a site for material and scholarly research. Throughout the firings, Goshen potter Dick Lehman noticed a one-by-two-foot area on the left side of the kiln that consistently produced interesting results. Soon, this area became Lehman’s usual spot, allowing him to respond to the atmospheric qualities specific to that section. Folklorist and author Meredith McGriff utilized the kiln for scholarly research by conducting on-site interviews for her 2020 book, The Michiana Potters, an investigation into the traditions, ethos, and aesthetic specific to the region’s clay scene.
During firings, participants stoked the kiln, ate together, and built trust through shared labor. Mornings brought cups of coffee, evenings were spent in lively chatter, and night shifts became meditative as the crew listened to the deep breathing of the kiln and the sound of rain. “It brings everyone into the present moment for the entire week,” says Misiuk. “It’s a time to shut out the entire world while we’re in the middle of the woods keeping this beast going—it brings the community together.”
Goshen native Trevor Daugherty describes the kiln’s experiential quality that gives it a unique place in the hearts of firing participants. “There’s something very specific about Justin’s kiln that’s comforting,” he says. “It’s a warm environment, and it feels like home to a lot of people. You come around the corner and down the steps, you smell the fire first, and then you see it, and then you see the people, and it’s kind of like a hug every time.”
Over the course of several wood firings, Daugherty brainstormed with Rothshank about how the development of a non-profit might support the regional clay community. Out of their conversation, the Northern Indiana Clay Alliance (NICA) was formed—a 501(c)(3) that serves to support clay artists connected to the area and preserve the region’s clay history.
Last Days (2022–2024)
By the early 2020s, the kiln’s days were coming to a close. The arch slumped, and years of firing had caused the walls to sag. Post-pandemic burnout, plus a change in Rothshank’s interests from wood-firing to soda-firing, softly signaled a shift in his studio practice. In 2023, for the first time, the kiln stood unfired for a year during a Rothshank family sabbatical.
The final firing of the kiln took place in April 2024, bringing wood firers together one last time. Then, after 52 firings, it was time to say goodbye. Over the next months, Sadie Misiuk and Nathan Pauls worked with Rothshank to disassemble the kiln, painstakingly removing, sorting, and grinding the bricks. The anagama’s deinstallation marked the end of an era.
But, for the dozens of potters who had participated in firing the kiln and the organizations that had sprung from its firings, the impact remained. Over 25 emerging makers participated in the internship program, and many continue to pursue clay afterward. Zach Tate went on to teach at the University of Arkansas. Craig Hartenberger established a sculptural ceramic practice. Some interns, like Sadie Misiuk and Taylor Emery, pursued full-time studio pottery, while others pursued arts administration, such as Cindy Gibson, who settled in the craft-rich region of Penland, North Carolina, and Mark Tarabula, now Studio Manager at Saratoga Clay Arts Center. Michiana Pottery Tour hosts over 50 nationally-recognized potters annually at 10 stops throughout the region, and NICA, now 125 members strong, serves as an organizational hub for the network.
Nathan Pauls notes the personal impact of the kiln: “It’s been the way that I’ve met most of my pottery friends. It’s had a profound effect on my community.”
Troy Bungart recalls how firings fueled belonging. “People would show up, finish their shift, and then stay for hours. Visitors would stop by day or night to see how the kiln was doing. Sometimes there were twenty or thirty people milling around and talking . . . the community involved was mind-blowing. And that really hooked me.”
Dick Lehman offers a perspective on how Rothshank’s kiln provided space for participants to learn and grow. “I see Justin as being generative,” Lehman says. “He involves people in what he’s doing—he invites you into his process to explore what that means to you and where you want to go with it.”
By fall of 2024, the kiln was gone. Through the winter, the kiln pad sat empty—a silent memory of the firings that had taken place.
Brick by Brick
Then, in summer 2025, sixteen years after Justin and Brooke arrived back in Goshen, a different truck drove into town, carrying materials for a new kiln. A small group stood on the empty kiln pad: Justin, Misiuk, Pauls, and recent Notre Dame MFA graduate Norah Ruth Amstutz. Under the guidance of kiln-building expert Ted Neal, they assembled a steel frame and stacked bricks in rows. Eight days later, a new train kiln stood on the once-empty kiln pad, with a chimney constructed using brick from the former anagama kiln. It stood anticipatory and receptive, brimming with potential and ready to welcome potters back again for years to come.
the author Alex Paat is a visual artist from Columbus, Ohio who interned at Rothshank’s studio from 2019 to 2020. He holds an MFA in Ceramics from Rochester Institute of Technology and serves on the board of NCECA. To learn more, visit alexpaat.com.
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