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EKWC was a time of per­son­al ar­tis­tic re­cov­ery, a time to re-trace path­ways and to have space to learn, in an en­vi­ron­ment brim­ming with ex­per­tise.

From early on in the res­i­den­cy, I con­cen­trat­ed on sur­face, feel­ing my way through the sub­tle­ties of clay bodies; their grains and tones. I was taken by the glaze room at EKWC. Dec­ades of re­search at the cen­tre of­fers res­i­dents an ex­traor­di­nary lab­o­ra­to­ry of pal­ettes and qual­i­ties. I began to sam­ple: cop­per sat­u­rate, ter­ra­sig­li­atta, ten­moku, cad­mi­um yel­low, pink en­gobe, gold lus­tre and more. In part, I’m en­chant­ed by their names alone, im­ag­in­ing how their el­e­ments com­bine and con­spire to cre­ate their states and re­flec­tions. Mak­ing glazes once again, as I had done many years be­fore when stud­y­ing, re-ig­nit­ed me. En­joy­ing the sim­ple glaze test so much, I began to make large slabs of clay, ‘plains’ and can­vas­es. The slabs were pressed into wood­en frames; in the case of the larg­er slabs it was very phys­i­cal work, slow and re­pet­i­tive. These were pro­cess­es and aes­thet­ics in which I could re­al­ly im­merse my­self — from pre­par­ing clay, to con­sid­er­ing place­ment of tones in re­la­tion to the stu­dio en­vi­ron­ment.

The pho­to­s below show a se­lec­tion of sam­ples and pieces made dur­ing this time, cap­tured in the stu­dio set­ting.

EKWC was a time of per­son­al ar­tis­tic re­cov­ery, a time to re-trace path­ways and to have space to learn, in an en­vi­ron­ment brim­ming with ex­per­tise.

From early on in the res­i­den­cy, I con­cen­trat­ed on sur­face, feel­ing my way through the sub­tle­ties of clay bodies; their grains and tones. I was taken by the glaze room at EKWC. Dec­ades of re­search at the cen­tre of­fers res­i­dents an ex­traor­di­nary lab­o­ra­to­ry of pal­ettes and qual­i­ties. I began to sam­ple: cop­per sat­u­rate, ter­ra­sig­li­atta, ten­moku, cad­mi­um yel­low, pink en­gobe, gold lus­tre and more. In part, I’m en­chant­ed by their names alone, im­ag­in­ing how their el­e­ments com­bine and con­spire to cre­ate their states and re­flec­tions. Mak­ing glazes once again, as I had done many years be­fore when stud­y­ing, re-ig­nit­ed me. En­joy­ing the sim­ple glaze test so much, I began to make large slabs of clay, ‘plains’ and can­vas­es. The slabs were pressed into wood­en frames; in the case of the larg­er slabs it was very phys­i­cal work, slow and re­pet­i­tive. These were pro­cess­es and aes­thet­ics in which I could re­al­ly im­merse my­self — from pre­par­ing clay, to con­sid­er­ing place­ment of tones in re­la­tion to the stu­dio en­vi­ron­ment.

The pho­to­s below show a se­lec­tion of sam­ples and pieces made dur­ing this time, cap­tured in the stu­dio set­ting.