After completing 21 collages and framing them I felt a strong desire to get my hands back in clay. I have also been looking forward to firing my barrel kiln so I chose micaceous clay and the pinching process. At this point I have done 5 barrel firings and fired a couple of dozen pieces.
Pinching clay without tools emphasizes the basic interaction of the fingers with the clay, leaving pinch marks as the process moves forward, getting to know each hand size vessel as it takes shape. Questions arise. Will it be taller than wide? Will it have a flat bottom? What kind of contour and profile will it have. Outward rounding forms predominate with a gathered neck and slightly flaring rim on many of them. Others are rounding inward at the rim with no neck or flared rim. The decisions are intuitive initially then more conscious. The clay cracks and bulges, I leave the finger marks and the cracks, repairing them from the inside but letting the cracks remain on the outside. Some of them have been burnished in areas to contrast with the rough cracked surfaces.
The work is meditative, I pinch the pots upside down for the most part, holding the pot above the table, keeping the bottom round, or pointed until it gets too floppy to continue. I set the pot down vertical or sometimes on an angle creating a flat spot for the pot to meet the table. I give attention to the rim but don’t cut it off even.
As the pot dries I pick it up again stretching it further from the inside. Cracks appear on the dryer outside surface. Sometimes I push all the way through and then carefully repair the break from the inside. When the clay creases and folds a little I work gently around that area respecting the crease, fold, or pucker and letting it be part of the piece.
Later, after the pieces have dried, I take them outside to the barrel. In the beginning I placed them directly in the barrel and lite the fire. This caused a couple of the pots to pop. My firing metabolism is too fast. Most of the pots come out of the firing unharmed but three have areas where they popped. The subsequent firings start out more conservative, warming the barrel and pots before placing the pots inside. The pots are raised up eight inches above the ground to allow more combustion underneath.
The burn is just as elemental as the pinching process. The flames consume the wood and brush down to fine ash in the end. After the initial warm up process wood is piled into the top of the barrel, lid off, building up the flames as high as I can. The approach to the barrel gets hot and after a time I must step back and let it burn down.
