I've just settled down on the couch with Ernie (my greyhound), a cup of chamomile tea and the fire roaring after a week at Brickfield with Roseanna Martin, working with waste materials to create clay bodies and glazes and boy do I feel knackered and absolutely buzzing.
I feel so inspired, so satisfied and so nourished. Firstly, it has to be said, the people on this course were all delightful with really unique backgrounds and goals they were there to achieve. All were really inspiring for different reasons and all were so kind and so giving of their knowledge. Rose, our wonderful leader, was full of that beautiful and charming balance of wisdom and curiosity - she'd ask questions alongside giving deep wells of knowledge and was so encouraging and cheeky and generous. I absolutely love what she's doing at her site and am so in awe of what she's achieved.
Community driven projects blow my mind and make me so eager to run my own. Eventually I'd like to get to that.... but for now, let me tell you how the course went.
Day 1:
We met each other, had coffee and treats at the Brickfield site, then went on a nice 2 hr walk up and down the old china clay mine site. We were essentially climbing waste heaps from the now-closed Blackpool Pit. The hills themselves are piles of quartz sand, granite and imported soil (the mining company doing 'their bit' to re-naturise the barren site). We talked geology, ecology and clay all the way up, while we ate our hastily made lunches and all the way down, all the while stopping and picking up rocks and piles of sand... It's very affirming spending time with other rock pickers!
The end of the walk lead us to the Blackpool pit ittself, now full of fresh water and a few of us had a dip. It was a really beautiful start.
Day 2:
Mixing clay bodies was priority and how we spent the whole day. Taking piles of raw materials (china clay, micah+china clay, ball clay etc.), adding no water at all as the piles live exposed to the elements so were wet enough, and wedging, wedging, wedging it all together until we had large piles of clay on the table. We made 3 main clay bodies then started mixing some more experimental ones using other raw materials we'd gathered locally.
There was something that felt very familial about standing around a table, all us women of various generations (and one man) kneading this earth into useable piles, sharing stories and knowledge and laughing. It reminded me of old footage of wool beaters... I can't and probably won't ever know what men talk about and how they behave in community settings like this but I find women in these scenarios bond very quickly, talking relationships and health and family, sharing deep insights and personal stories while we work our hands. It is very grounding and feels very meaningful. I've felt it a few times now in the clay world and find that to be one of the key things about the pottery world that inspires me.
Day 3:
RAIN RAIN RAIN all day but we didn't let it dampen our spirits. Wednesday was making day and the continued positive vibes and bonding kept the rain from getting us down.
I focused mostly on making things that would be simple glaze testers rather than interesting forms - this course was mostly piquing my glaze curiosity than my found-clay curiosity though of course both were equally fascinating. So I made lots of little pinched mini bowls, a few little vases, some bones and some teeth, some slugs (of course) and mostly left it at that. Other people made some glorious forms, some slip cast and some really experimental. It was so beautiful to see how varied it all was - personality is impossible to remove from what your hands make, I think.
Day 4:
On Thursday we began preparing glaze materials and finished off our makes. I made two slips from my wild clay that I'd collected in 2022/23 (from Redruth and the Helford River) and we collected lots of wild dry gorse branches. We made a big bonfire in an old washing machine drum and burned the gorse for about 3 hours to create a nice big ash pile. We also alternated shifts crushing and grinding decayed granite into the finest powder we could manage. Ash and the granite would be the basis for our glazes along with many other variables...
Day 5:
Friday saw us preparing glazes and applying them to the work. It was a long day, I didn't leave until 4 this time (most days finished around 2.30+ an hour travel time), but it was really fun and creative. We continued to grind the hell out of the granite dust until it would go through an 80mesh potters seive and mixed about 10 different glaze combinations using materials we'd gathered and some that'd been brought from home.
Glazing was more scientific than free and painterly - taking extensive notes of what piece had what glaze, using symbolic codes and making sure we had notes of their recipe ratios etc. It was exacting and more enjoyable than I thought it'd be - I tend to be a lot more lax about glazing usually!
By the end of the day we'd placed our work in order of favourite to least so that Rose knew which pieces to prioritise when she was stacking the kiln. I spread my work out evenly across the boards with a backup board of extras. My teeth and bones were priority...
Day 6:
Kiln stacking began before we arrived with Rose managing the whole stack. It made sense as she knows the kiln better than anyone and, being that it's a very small chamber, too many hands would make it really complicated. So myself and Alice made wadding balls for Rose and she applied them and stacked until about 11.30am. It was a beautifully calm and sunny morning after the wild week we'd had (my gazebo broke from the winds!).
We officially lit the kiln at 12.30pm, candling (low fire letting the steam in the work and the bricks evaporate before any serious temperature increase) for nearly 4 hours. We heard a few pops which made us take it a lot slower than we thought we would.
We lit the left fire box first, joining the right firebox in about 2 hours later, then ramped the temp from hour 4 until about 7pm where we really pushed it and tried to maintain a higher temp for as long as possible. We initially planned
an 8 hour firing but ended up doing 11 hours. The cones (the thing that indicated what temperature you're at and if the pots would be mature/cooked) were slower to drop than we expected and one set of cones really wasn't moving so we fired longer in hopes of changing that. Eventually we called it before our goal cone actually dropped but that proved to not be an issue.
Comparing to my Norway firing, it was SOOOO much more chill. We all sat around with wine and made jacket potatoes on the coals, sharing stories and laughing and solving the world's problems. The stoking was mild and the amount of wood was nothing! This little mini train kiln was so efficient, it was incredible. I had the 4-5pm shift with a sculptor, Emily. Was chill and fun and we had a steady temp, ramping toward the end.
We put the kiln into reduction for about an hour in total, meaning that we'd have some subtle chemical changes which make glazes do some pretty wild things. I learned a lot on this firing, again, feeling like I've got so much to learn still but electrified by the feeling of learning about something I cannot get enough of.
We went to bed around 11.30, I was sleeping in my little van, others in tents and their cars.
Day 7:
The big reveal! I woke around 7, got up at a leisurely 8am and we all had pancakes with eggs - a first for me. Lots of coffee, lots of time killing until the others arrived for a 10am opening. The weather was due to set in pretty poorly around 10.30am so we wanted to get eveyrthing out, take it to a local cafe (based at an old mine of course) and ooh and aah over the pots there. So it was a rapid unload, gasping and 'what the hell-ing' at the results, packing things into boxes, shutting down the site and driving to Wheal Martyn as the rain started to pour.
The results.... what can I say?
Exceptional. Honestly I can't stop looking at the work. They're tiny pieces and they hold the whole universe in them. The alchemy is mind blowing and it's so, so incredible to have seen the life cycle of the materials that went into these things from raw waste materials from massive industry, into fine, stunning artisnal work that we made with our bare hands and a whole lot of fire. We were all pretty gobsmacked. Unless you've done a wood firing it's really hard to put into words and explain what it's like to see the pieces as they come out; how it's such a communal revelling in the work, how everyone's things inform everyone elses outcomes, how the work you put in on your shift contributes to everyone's prized art and how there's no competition just pure joy and support and wonder. It's magical.
The glazes were astounding. So rich and so diverse, some working better than others but all magical in their own way. Some completely unexpected... blues and greens and caramelly tones, creamy turquoise and deep metallic purples. I'm most pleased with my teeth. I had a dream after the firing about opening the kiln, about how it was full of bones I'd made and about a show I was putting together focusing on bone reading and runes and memento mori (something I'm already deeply researching for new work). So for the teeth and bones to come out as good as they did, I'm feeling really energised to make more exploratory work with these themes of death and life cycles and time/decay....
Overall, what a week. I am exhausted and full of joy and appreciation. I've reconfirmed my obsession with wood firing and I'm excited for 2025 and what projects I might be able to get my hands in. I am especially excited to play with foraged glaze recipes... I have ash glazes in my electric kiln as we speak.
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