Jill Symes — 'Blackware Oval Upright' Sculptural Vessel, 2024

Using mainly recycled clays and age-old handbuilding techniques of pinch, coil, slab and layer, these forms were spontaneously created, utilizing clays various, allowing the qualities of the clay and handbuilding methods to feature. Some of her works in this show were fired using a shallow in-ground pit, stacked with scrounged timbers and layers of sawdust plus some salt, until the fire (and pots) reached the desired heat colour (red/orange), turning the raw clay into ceramic, and colouring with the oxidising flame and reduction from the timbers and other combustible materials surrounding the pots. Others were saggar-fired in a gas kiln. Most of these forms were either sanded on the outside surface, or burnished several times as they dried, using a finely polished gemstone, before committing them to the fire.