Description
A unique vase, painted by dancing flames for 24 hours from my recent wood firing. I made it in 2023 without having a wood kiln, but with the intention of firing it in one. The surfaces and textures you see and can feel are a result of that time spent immersed in flame and dusted with ash. There is no glaze applied to the pot.
The two sides are similar but tell a story of the kilns atmosphere, showing their differences. The side with larger bubbling was facing towards the inside of the kiln and has gotten hotter than the front surface. This could have to do with the speed of the air pushing past that front face into the rest of the kiln. Both faces have areas where there has been oxygen present, created red and brown colours as well as where there was heavy reduction, leading to the black and metalic surfaces. The clay is quite high in iron, on the limit of working well as a wood firing clay body. It is this natural iron which causes such dramatic effects and leads in some areas to the surface becoming rough. This happened mostly on the corners where the clay starts to get eaten away by the ash and heat. There is a lot of aspects to this complicated vase, it would take time to find them all.
The clay is one I have collected locally on my bike from the top edge of a river valley near where I live. It is a lively clay that remembers how it was treated when wet, and as it dries tends to warp, as you can see with this vase. It has fortunately survived its trip through the kiln and holds water for delicate spring blooms to really shine on the dark background.
