The NCEFG was formed in 2003 by the archaeologists Tofa Borregaard and Dave Walker. They wanted to understand more about pottery production in historic and prehistoric periods by building pottery kilns and firing pottery within them.

Other permanent members include Angela Vernon who kindly hosts our activities and does more than could possibly be listed here; George Chlentzos tech support; Iana Iasiello editrix; Rachel Young artistic director; and Vanessa Applegate most faithful volunteer. An ever growing paticipants list can be found here.

So far the NCEFG has had five sucessful seasons, two rebuilds, and a total of 12 firings in our kiln - Stanley. Our kiln is based roughly on Romano-British and medieval British up-draught models. We make pots and fire them, using wood for fuel, over a period of eight to twelve hours. Wheel-thrown, pinched, slab-built, coil-built, glazed, and unglazed pottery were all fired in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007. Our kiln is capable of temperatures up to 1100 degrees Celsius.

NCEFG participants work to rebuild the kiln in 2004. Stanley IIa is in the foreground awaiting its shell of insulating material and rebuilt firebox. (From Left to Right: D. Cooley, D. Walker, R. Barnett, M. Tittle, V. Applegate, J. Curtis, T. Borregaard, V. Dempsey, Z. Mardesich and I. Iasiello. Photo taken by R. Hill.)

The NCEFG runs a sporadic blog hosted by Live Journal. It is often more up-to-date than the web site, though lacks the pretty pictures. Check it out!

Tofa Borregaard

Tofa lives in Los Gatos, California and represents the US faction of the NCEFG.

Tofa began as a field archaeologist in 1996, but was quickly moved into the laboratory when her supervisors discovered she was also a potter. Since then she has been interested in carving out an academic career that combines her scientific, archaeological, and artistic interests - hence experimental firing. She is an active member of the Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society. She has a MS in Archaeological Materials and began PhD studies at UCSC in 2006.

In addition to pottery, archaeology, and overly expensive machines that go "beep" (direct quote from an SEM) Tofa also sews historical costumes, writes young adult fiction, dances, and eats a lot of Thai food. Any given weekend, when the NCEFG is not in session, she can be found in either a bodice or a corset at various historical reenactments or science fiction conventions (like BayCon).

Dave lives in Nottingham, England and represents the UK faction of the NCEFG.

Dave has been professionally involved in field archaeology since 1992 and completed his PhD in archaeology at The University of Nottingham in 2007 focusing on experimental kilns.  His research interests are in the development of pottery kilns, particularly the introduction of the Type 3 multiple-fire mouth kiln in northern Britain in the late medieval period. He is co-founder of The Derbyshire Ware Project, an experimental archaeology programme that constructs and fires a replica Romano-British Derbyshire Ware pottery kiln and tries to recreate Derbyshire Ware pots.

Outside archaeology, Dave's interests include cycling and the Moulton Bicycle (old and new), photography, looking at art, buildings and mountains, talking rubbish and The Lovely Kate.

He is an atrocious potter.

Angela lives in Bolinas, California and is the generous host and patron of the NCEFG. In addition to experimental firings her interests include gardening, entertaining vast numbers of demanding archaeologists, and feeding people.

George Chlentzos is the NCEFG's general tech support. He puts up with a lot.

Iana Iasiello is the NCEFG's Bulletin editor, peer review, and Fire Weasel. She also puts up with a lot (which she will be happy to tell you).

Rachel Young

Rachel Young is our artistic director. Rach has designed the icons and graphics used on this site. She is amazing.

The lovely Nessa is one of the few volunteers to have seen the NCEFG through from its birth.