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Artist Exhibitions:
Candid Arts, Islington,London
UK, June 2000
City and Islington College,
Group Show, London UK, June
2000
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Further Information
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Artist Galleries:
Coming Soon!
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Artist Reviews:
Coming Soon!
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Collections:
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Commissions:
Coming Soon!
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Artist Statement for Jenny Silkstone
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My pots are made using the ancient Japanese firing process called raku. The bodies are thrown, using specially formulated clays with enough porosity to handle the inherent thermal shock involved in the process. Pots are heated to nearly 1000° C, then removed from the kiln, one by one. They are immediately placed in a container filled with a combustible substance such as sawdust or straw or paper, and the lid is tightly fitted so that a reduction atmosphere is formed, starving the glazes of oxygen. The glaze formulas include metallic oxides and materials that cause glaze shrinkage which yield the crackle patterns, or cause the metals to change into a rainbow of different colors. Each pot has it's own personality because the heat, flames and shapes are always different. All my pots are hand thrown and altered and are only kept when the results are acceptable to me.
I particularly enjoy the surfaces of my work, whether it be raku, paper clay or volcanic glazes. During the raku process, foraging about in the hot sawdust bucket, half choking from the smoke, I feel like an excited child taking a turn with the lucky dip at a party. I never know how the piece will turn out until the soot has been scrubbed off under a running tap, when I discover what gift (or not) the god of the flames has bestowed.
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