Frank A. Colson began working with fuel kilns over thirty years ago. He holds a BFA degree from the Claremont Colleges in California, where he majored in ceramics, and a master's degree from Syracuse University in New York. Since 1964, he has operated the Colson School of Art in Sarasota, Florida, which specializes in the teaching of pottery and kiln firing techniques.

Mr. Colson began experimenting with the new insulating materials when they first appeared on the industrial market. At the 1968 World Crafts Council Conference in Lima, Peru, he demonstrated their use as supplementary insulation for a pottery kiln; and at the 1970 W.C.C. Conference in Dublin, Ireland, where he was a member of the Ceramic International Symposium advisory panel, he demonstrated a totally brickless kiln using these new

materials. Since then, he has built ceramic fiber based kilns in Canada, Australia, and Mexico, as well as throughout the United States. In 1974 he was awarded a U.S. patent for a

brickless preformed portable kiln.