I am impressed by the way certain painters invest gestural marks wit hlayers of  meaning and significance. The way, for example, the Jewish American painter, Barnett Newman, Placement of the zip on his canvases serves both as an analogy and carrier of feelings and meanings surrounding concepts such as atonement and the resolution of opposites. Or the manner in which the drips, slpashes and brush strokes on the British painter, John Virtues' massive inform and enhance our perception of landscape. In a similar way I see the smoke marks and patterns derived from raku firing having potential for meaning which goes beyond the decorative.
    At present the majority of my work is made by using the coil technique. Long coils of clay, round in section are built up on small turntables and refined and shaped by small, hand held, tensile steel scrapers. Pieces with rounded bases are stared on press moulded bases. The mould itself is a disc, fired and coil built clay form. For speed sometimes the pieces are forced dried using a small propane burner. I tend to make a series of forms and get pleasure from the subtle variations that exist between similar shaped hand built forms . The clay body is a mixture of a English commercial clay called" T" Material(2/3)and English Porcelain(1/3)."T" Material is a white and highly refractory clay and is tempered by molochite. If I require a coarser texture large grain sized molochite is added. Recently dishes and wall pieces have been introduced using slab building processes. For this work the same clay is used.
    Depending on the small piece, the following surface treatments are applied to the work process. Open textures may be scraped when leather hard or sanded with abrasive paper when dry. For smoky appearance the leather hard surface may be covered with a thin application of a fine slip and then burnished with metal spoons or granite pebbles. If I require a rich, deep polish, terra sigillata  may be applied to the burnished surface. On some black surfaces I paint linear patterns of latex resist and when the clay is bone dry erode lines into the uncovered clay lines with sponge and water. The eroded surface carbonized to a lighter "black" than the untreated lines of clay.     

   
    I bisque fire in a top loading electric kiln to between 1050 degrees c. and 1100 degrees c. over an 8-hour cycle. This is relatively high bisc. Temperature is to give some strength to the finished piece. The kiln is operated by a digital program controller and takes place overnight to use cheaper energy. For very thick slab pieces a slow 48-hour firing is employed.
    After the bisque fire, some pieces are grounded and polished using diamond coated abrasives--this gives an eroded, stone like quality to the work. This is important as it gives landscape/geological references and feeling to the work.
  

  Pieces can be covered with a resist slip made from equal parts of kaolin and flint on the top of which a thin layer of a crackle raku glaze is poured. Lines are then incised through the glaze and slip. After the raku firing and post firing reduction, because the resist slip acts as a barrier between clay and glaze, the glaze peels from the pots surface and reveals dramatic lines, spots and crackle patterns of smoke and the intense carbonization gives a dramaticd and rich depth to the piece. Other pieces are covered in lines or simple circular patterns of fine slip and again when cool, after the firing, linear and crackle smoke patterns are revealed--this time the markings are more subtle and rock-like, this quality is intensified by grinding and polishing the pieces again. Some slab pieces are smoked very black--after the firing some areas are again ground back to give lighter polished areas--rather like polished marble or granite.
    The final raku firing takes place in one of two cylindrical "tophat" kilns suspended from the roof of my studio and operated by a simple counterweight system so I can easily lift the kiln away from the work when ready. The smallest kiln is 80cm×80cm. And it is designed to fire smaller and flatter forms such as bowls and dishes. The larger kiln is 110cm×110cm. and intended for firing larger work. Both kilns are fired by two propane burners places at an angle opposite each other. Purpose built metal drums are used for smoking the pieces when withdrawn from the kiln. Because of the size of my work usually one piece is fired at a time. If pieces are not using glaze on the surface and require only a light smoking they are drawn from the kiln between 600 and 700 degrees c.
  

For pieces with glaze on the surface the work is drawn from the kiln at a temperature from to 950 degrees. For very black slab built pieces a final temperature of around 1050 is reached before the work is removed. The firing process is monitored both visually and by a digital pyrometer.
   When the piece is ready, the kiln is raised away and the work is lifted from the kiln with heat resistant gloves and placed carefully in the nearby smoking chamber. Depending on the required strength of the smoke the work is carefully placed on top of or in different amounts of a fine sawdust. Depending on how dark the piece is required, it is left in the smoking for 15 to 60 minutes. The work is then taken from the chamber, cleaned and if necessary, given a final grinding with abrasives.