COLUMBIA

Heart of Darkness: Making Clay in Australia 3y steve Harrison

Years of concentrated research have gone into making these bowls.
‘These pieces are like no other in that their provenance is known from
their source in the soil to their exhibition in the gallery.

No one makes clay like this anymore and I think that is a shame. It’s
not even clay in the usual sense.

On the surface of each rock granule there is a tiny layer of particles
that have been liberated from the stone as it decomposes
over the millennia, turning imperceptibly—atom
by atom—into clay.

Rock fragments I have selected are spread out
to dry on the workshop floor and then roughly
crushed, so that when I stir them vigorously
in a bucket of water the kaolin coating rinses off
and dissolves. This is best done by hand. When a
machine is used it breaks up the rock too much creating
something far too rock-like and not enough like clay. Stirring
is gentle and achieves the purpose exactly.

‘This process is repeated over and over, slowly building up a clay
slip which is then left to flocculate and be adjusted before decanting.
Adjustment in this case means adding some acid.

I spent the first six months of the year liberating and concentrating
the clays for this show. This clay embodies the essence of my intellect’s
integration with the area in which I live.

I feel strongly someone should be doing this. I love the result so
much; it can’t be gained in any other way. This jet-black, dry matt
surface is so rich and dark and rewarding, like a plum pudding made
with suet. What it brings out from my ground rock glazes when fired

with local wood or clippings is something special which gives this
work its marque.

As this clay is fragile and sensitive the bowls must be thick to increase
their strength. I have had to fire each one on an individually crafted
ceramic plaque to prevent it melting into the kiln shelf. Traces of their
setting in the kiln remain embedded in the foot rings. The ground-rock
glazes have developed a rich dark patina with rusty iron
rims where the glaze has melted away, thickening

at the foot in some instances, revealing an

opacity and opulent richness that I don’t often

see. There are occasionally tiny fragments of

my hand-made, local weathered white-bauxite

fire bricks embedded in the softening glaze as they

slowly spall away, and the outer surface is sometimes

blushed to opalescent blue or yellow with small deposits
of natural fly ash from the firing.

The preceding article is taken from the invitation to Steve Harrison’
exhibition “Heart of Darkness” at the Legge Gallery in New South Wales,
Sept. 23 to Oct. 11, 2008. For more information on his pottery, click here.

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Potters Guild of BC Newsletter : October 2008