With the advent of another COVID-19 lockdown in Ireland, in order to try and banish the COVID blues that are threatening on the horizon, I have decided to start the ‘Turnstone Ceramic Chronicles’. In this strange time, my social and professional interactions are very limited and shrinking each day! (we cannot move beyond 5 km from home, unless its for an essential reason), so have to decided to extend my interaction with the universe by writing about my experience with ceramics, posting a few pictures of my making process and practice, and possibly witter on endlessly.
I have two passions in my life (actually a few more really) ceramics and Ecology. Both have become intertwined, ceramics is about ecology - plants and animals, and my approach to ecology is becoming infiltrated by my ceramics.
I mainly make raku- fired ceramics. My pieces are all hand built, often by making pinch pots from a ball of soft clay, closing up the pot, and then altering it to create ceramic birds and other animals. I sometimes include metal nails in the birds (the beaks) which oxidise a bit (sometimes a lot) during firing. The nails introduce another layer of unpredictability in an unpredictable process, since sometimes the metal makes the clay surrounding it crack. This is not usually a good thing!