Category: Ceramics

These images show some of my favourite pit-fired pieces which I have kept in my own collection. Pit-firing is a wonderful process for me because it is deeply connected to my environment and the seasons. The process starts with gathering materials for the combustible nest which fumes each vessel. I walk the beach to harvest the right seaweed and visit some of the family farms to get the cow dung that insulates the pieces and slows their cooling as the fire dies out. Other materials are gathered from my garden and the hills around the studio.

All the colour in the surfaces comes from the materials burned around each piece and how it is nestled in the flames. The pieces themselves are generally wheel thrown porcelain, burnished when leather-hard then low fired to retain enough porosity to absorb the fumes released by the organic materials in their ‘nest’. After firing I seal the surfaces with a smooth wax which highlights the satin burnishing and stops the oil from finger prints from marking the surface.

Some of the surfaces I inscribe with text using a razor at the leather-hard stage prior to the first firing. The texts I use are lines from poems, books, or songs that have shaped my understanding of life in some way. I think of the words as being scared into the surfaces, they become an integral part of the vessel, inviting touch for discovery as fingertips trace the letters to understand the phrases.

The markings on each piece are unique, a fusion of shape, materials, and process. The flame fuming of the pit-fire works in harmony with the round shapes of these vessels. The flames are able to lick the shape with out sharp lines breaking their flow. The result is a visually engaging surface with a strong tactile quality which I find a particularly satisfying combination in an art object.