12/05/2026
OK, I have sat up all night downloading the results of the two first days form and surface workshops, needless to say it was an intense start to a bonkers 10 days, 7 days of which were spent at the beautiful and remote Rimondato, the last 3 gallivanting around Florence and Pisa on an 'educational field trip' that I would not have missed a moment of, however much I thought I wanted to at some of the more extreme times, including both my slip accidents - Marcus, I think we need to do something about that bank health and safety wise, my coxix? still hurts and both wrists were sprained, luckily I have a high pain threshold, as does Susy, who hurt her knee last time round. I see it as part of the whole peculiar story so I am not cross, I think it was funny but probably made me a little more crotchety than usual but on a serious note it did limit Susie's access a bit.
It is important to remember that regardless of so called 'alternative technique' type of firing - pit, drum, paper, raku (although I have always seen raku as optional because I am no great fan of the process or the usual 'fast food of ceramics' off the shelf effects more often than not covering bad form, however I am interested in what happens when my surface slip and oxide pre-bisque decorative techniques and own recipe formula's, developed over 25 years of intense practice are underlaid on the raw forms that we built on the first and second days of our course. I still continue to develop, use and adapt the complexity of this life long enquiry to suit assembled semi relief hollow form (large scale bowls down to miniature ritual folk art/American beat influenced w**d pots, figurative sculpture, flatware (tile assemblages, slab stands and whatever else I choose.) I am interested to record the surface effects of my technique when used underneath a base recipe simple raku white crackle and a copper red that I have used over the many years of teaching this technique regardless of my like/dislike. I believe that this judgement level should not come into good teaching practice, I try to respect the integrity of the intention as opposed to liking the object on the shelf.
I suppose I am known to be highly critical and a hard task master...mostly of myself. I also believe that most students sign up to my courses to learn about my surface and forming techniques so this is what I concentrate on, the firing aspect really only interesting me because I am drawn to calculated risk but believe it or not I do know what I am doing and I also know why the pit seemingly failed on this occasion...but I have taught myself to see success in failure by learning to look beneath the surface and not to go with the sensational at any cost.
I actually really do prefer what happened in the pit firing because I am more fascinated by the subtlety and beauty of the marks, the bronze age process and way of living, not dissimilar to Marcus, Lucy and Lola's contemporary vession of the passive bits of this ancient lifestyle. It failed to reach beyond 'Beaker' people temperature because of poor planning of pit, wet weather, not enough bone dry wood, saggars too close together...I could go on but I need to discuss detail with Marcus so that we learn by our mistakes.I have to point out that I am delighted with the non glaze results, however unstable, because the jpegs give a hint of what would have happened had they reached the required temperature and are still remarkably beautiful on so many levels, including the fragility of the temporary surface maybe because of it's transience.
The pit did in fact smoulder well overnight, despite it being boggy, due to the unusual amount of rainfall in the preceding days and nights. We laid stones, galvanised sheets, straw on base and around the sides, a layer of sawdust, organic matter, large and small kindling onto which we placed 2 lines of olive oil tin saggars, packed with oxides, sea salt various oxides and combustibles, the results from these 100% reduction capsules would have been incredible.The pinch pots put amongst the open fire being more about smoke firing and the effect of oxides wedged into clay - more subtle. After we struggled to cover the pit with 3 weighty steel scaffolding boards, the holes were filled in with sodden earth, then covered with a dampish large rush matting. The temperature was never going to reach anywhere near the hoped for 850'c. Some of the saggers were still untouched by any flame whatsoever but others contained the most beautiful flashings and incredible depth of tone. We nearly did it and I have every confidence that it will be worth waiting for. Don't forget you can do it for yourselves back at home, just make sure you follow the basic instructions that I sent you as a preliminary hand out. Add to this what we revealed once unstable matter was scrubbed away, washed in soapy water, then buffed with beeswax and I think you should be amazed rather than disappointed and I am sorry that you failed to recognise this.
The look of these wares is contemporary bronze age, not a pastiche but a valid interpretation using incising, symbolism and function as base notes to something more universal,being that this was what our projects brief was based upon - specifically bronze age settlement living focussing on the 'Beaker' people of The Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall amongst other interesting related avenues of enquiry. The photographs that I have collated are but a fraction of the whole but it might be worth studying them before you automatically find the raku more interesting.The spectacular passageways of colour achieved are mainly there because of all the pre-bisque decoration technique that I am known for. This is the cause of all documented colour response accepting that of the 2 base glazes and a few synthetic CTM off the shelf primary's left over from the last courses aborted attempt at Raku, (in my opinion to do with the installed gas supply and old kiln design, now all corrected and bottled gas used.
I thought it sensible to take a back seat and record the visuals, especially as the lovely Claudine Ruellan, the expert raku artist had volunteered to lead. We all played an important role, myself included but I sensed that the groups general air of disappointment over the pit fire as a contrast to the overexcitement of the raku was disproportionate. The lesson is the more you try to see beneath the surface and the conventional expectation of final object on the shelf the faster you will develop your confidence in what really drives your work. Clo, I have to say that you are one of the few raku artists I do find aesthetically interesting and open, also full of integrity of purpose, I really do believe that adapting this methodology and our lengthy one to one end critique will help you add depth of tone/contrast and lateral thought techniques to your already developed and sophisticated style, thank you for working so tirelessly and leading the multitude of firing, it was above and beyond the call of duty, especially given the weather. You and the whole team were and are amazing and I have some brilliant photographs. The pots were more or less chosen randomly as to which would go into which firing although some choices were more considered. About half of the pitfire pots are stable after having been scrubbed, be interesting if you could try and guess as I don't think some of you thought it worth bringing them home! I hope you change your mind Pamela Tongue!
I will at some point upload the 100's of other wonderful images that I took of the whole event and finish off giving some of you your final crits. Needless to say there are many classic moments when living and working with such a group...it was wonderfully intense, not always easy but that is the way it should be when going feral in the wilderness that is Rimondato. I know plan a time of solitude to right my balance. We all worked so incredibly hard I can hardly believe we did all this in such a short space of time? Thank you Marcus, Lola and Lucy, Pam ,Claudine, Audrey, Susy, Annemieke, Jan, Luc and Nico for the wonder of it all.
