ceramics

"A Part From The Infinite Series". Ceramic sculpture. Height 20cm x Width 34 cm. 2022.

I make sculptural, decorative, and some functional ceramics. I pinch clay, and use hand-building techniques like coiling and slabbing, often working in short sessions over many months on larger pieces. Work in the Fenestrations Series requires extended time to build, and very long careful drying to decrease the chance of warping or cracking. Openings in the surfaces, the fenestrations, are fractures or disruptions, I create them as I pinch, working with their outlines to add punctuation marks to the form, re-directing light, and forcing a conversation between the inside, and what is left out. 

Due to the fairly unorthodox, and sometimes forceful, making process I use to develop highly textured—crunchy—porcelain surfaces, other tiny fractures in the clay may appear during the high temperature firings, as the forms shrink and vitrify. Flowing ash glazes will always find and document these; the firing process is always a partner in contributing character to the finished piece.  

 

I have always focused on pinching clay. Over many years of observation, I have developed methods to make intensely textured, crunchy surfaces in the material, revealing information from the inner life of the clay body. I love how it looks, and how it relates my work to the geological transformation that gives us clay to work with. Clays starts out as rocks: the destructive interaction of water with rock...weathering, and all those freeze-thaw cycles over deep time, causes constant erosion, and dispersion into clay seams and deposits that we then harvest and use as clay. Firing changes clay irreversibly; through our actions, the materials in clay and glazes are chemically transformed into new kinds of rock and glass. 

I develop an intense relationship with my sculptures as they grow over time, and I take the opportunity to reflect and to respond, to work with new ideas and be inspired by the evolving form. The new piece in a series often comes directly from a question I posed to myself during the process of making an earlier one.

New pieces are always underway—here is a short ‘making of’ video for Pool, a porcelain vessel with metal additions (work in progress):

Vases and platters are the dominant functional forms that I make. I love gardening, I grow a veg garden, and always have cuttings underway to share with neighbours. To serve and share food, or fill a vase from my garden is to complete a form, they are in a symbiotic relationship. For me, this is making as a way of living because the two processes nurture each other so completely.

Pinched porcelain vases in winter light, fired at cone 6 or 10 in oxidation. I like to use a variety of clays for subtle colour shifts, and for the variety of textures that they offer.

 

Lots more pictures, studio news, and work in progress on instagram @metalisclay