Process

I produce hand built vessels, usually from coils of clay, which are rolled out and positioned to determine shape.  Each coil needs to be blended together inside and out with the fingers and thumb or a wooden tool to ensure there are no weaknesses.  The surfaces are then scraped and beaten to the required thickness, texture and form.

Currently I am working on thin walled vessels coated in layers of slip created from the clay body and burnished each time to produce the smooth and polished surface required.  All my work is bisque fired to 1000˚C in an electric kiln.

This work is then fired in a large deep pit.  The work is set on a deep bed of sawdust with oxides, dry vegetable matter, etc. added.  It is then covered with paper and timber and lit.  When the fire is well established, the pit is covered with corrugated iron sheets and then shut down.  It can take over twenty four hours for the work to be extracted, cleaned, dried and finally polished with beeswax.  If all goes well the fuming process can produce some stunning results with spectacular colours and markings. 

The clay used for this type of work is my own combination of porcelain and T material, which gives strength and flexibility and the white surface required.  My present output centres on medium and large scale vessels.  Some of this is raku fired, as is the range of jewellery that I currently make.  My aim is to create beauty in form and finish with attention to balance and harmony in the materials used.  The end product is an object contemporary in design, evocative of the landscape and natural elements and tactile in nature.