frost & flow

[hibernating & preparing for the wood-fired kiln]

This winter has been an interesting balance of quiet reflection while setting things in motion for the months ahead. Some years, January can feel bubbly, full of energy for the coming year’s goals and intentions but even my freshly thrown clay told me to slow down this year. With the heating on in the house, my pots have been drying far too quickly which causes them to distort and warp unless they’re wrapped in plastic. Reminding me not to push things too quickly.

Slow say the pots.

Since the start of the year, I’ve been working on a collection of work that I’ll wood-fire in March in the northeast of Scotland. I’ll be working for two weeks with a potter experienced in ash glazes and wood-firing. I’ll be helping to develop an ash glaze with a specific aesthetic and tactile quality. The usual recipe hasn’t been producing the expected effects, so we’re starting from scratch. He’s keen to apply some academic rigour to this project and I’m excited to take concepts from the scientific method that I’m used to working with in my day job to a different context.

We’ll be systematically varying the proportions of three different materials, one of which is ash from the oilseed rape plant, in the week leading up to the firing. To know whether we’ve achieved the qualities we’re after, we need to test the glazes on miniature bowls rather than test tiles to get a sense of the glaze’s true movement. I’ve been making dozens of small bowls, thrown off the hump for this. Each little bowl is different and rather than finish each in the same way, I’ve played with different bowl designs. Some have tall and narrow footrings, some have low squat ones, and some don’t have a footring at all.

After turning these small bowls, I revisited a few larger pieces that hadn’t quite met my intended design or dimensions. They were destined for the recycling bucket but I spent more time with them instead, reflecting on how they could best be finished. I’ve ended up with two new bowl designs that I love and will join my core set of forms. With a recent focus on form refinement, I’ve been reminded to take time to experiment too.

Take time to play say the pots.

My two weeks of time dedicated to pottery in March is going to come quickly and I want to learn as much as I can from it. I have made the dozens of small bowls for glaze testing, learned about tri-axial glaze blends and the principles of ash glazes. When those test bowls come out of the kiln, I want to understand how the materials have led to different effects. What do the tests say about the make-up of the rape ash, the minerals the plant held on to during its lifespan that we’re seeing the effects of now? There will be a lot to take in within those two weeks and I don’t want to miss a thing.

Prepare say the pots.

Winter’s time of reflection and quiet work, now transitioning to a time of action

bringing plans into being