My ceramic Fat Birds are hand coiled and daubed with metal oxides before they are placed in a galvanised dustbin and set alight. The process of smoke firing is unpredictable and can throw up many variations; you may think that you’ve treated two sculptures the same way – yet they emerge from the flames two entirely different entities.
All the Fat Birds have had their eyes glazed with Botz brush-on and then, after glaze firing, I daubed them in manganese and copper oxide. The manganese can sometimes turn yellow and orange in the smoke fire as can be seen on two of the cockerels – but the middle hen remains grey, brown and charcoal.
I rubbed some iron oxide on the cockerels, but not on the hens. I just love the random way the smoke has left its mark on the surface…
I’m running ceramic and smoke firing workshops in my studios in Dudley Road, Hastings, and if you would like to know more, please go to www.annakeiller.com/workshops to find out more.
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