It's been a while since I've posted. I guess it's been one hell of a ride because my mom passed away and basically I've been building up a ceramic studio in my basement as well as using CoreClay to help my madness into ceramics. I've been doing a lot of wheel thrown ceramics. I've switched a lot of my focus over to ceramics just because that's what my mom and I did for quite some time before she passed away. That was something that we like to do together. She like to do wheel throwing and I sorta gravitated to that once she passed.
One of the things that I've been gaining a lot of interest in is pit firing. It uses a regular camp fire to color your pottery. I started using detris and chemicals to burn into the ceramics. The fire reacts with the materials and stains the ceramics. I've been having a lot of fun with this. Another thing that's been happening is the bowls tend to break apart due to the thermal shock of the pit fire. If it cools too fast the shock usually cracks it or breaks it apart. You can use a raku clay to avoid this but I am having fun playing with the reclaim body of clay that I am using. Plus it's way cheaper than the store bought clay. I have a lot of fun putting them back together. This really gives a piece another kind of feel and it looks like it's been dug up and has a very earthen quality. I still feel I am still exploring death but in a different way. Grief, Earth, Fire and Ash are the main components of exploring this new body of work. I will always be using bones if it’s not bone ash or burning the bone to make the fire hotter. I'm also exploring using the remains of the fire ash to make glazes and add to the clay. I'm sure the bones will pop back up again in my artwork but for right now it's more about wheel throwing and mastering the bowl form. I'm going to be applying for a show in the next couple of day for my ceramics. The show actually is about death and the circle of life which is perfect for me. We'll see if I get in.
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October 2023
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