Clay work

Clay work is full of paradoxes. It is one of the most technically challenging of art media, and yet it is used by children. It is one of the most ancient media, made of the stuff of the earth itself, and yet it is also at the fore front of modern materials science. Those of us who work in clay follow an ancient tradition in which a great deal is still new, still to be done.

The term ceramics refers to all non-metallic, inorganic materials that lend themselves to permanent hardening by high temperatures. Ceramics are more resistant to heat than any other materials on the face of the earth. From the beginning of human history into as much as we can see of the future, we have been and will be dependent upon ceramics. 

I am fond of saying that you will be going to the moon in a glazed pot. That's not literally true, of course, but to with stand the extreme heat, everything on the outside of a spaceship is probably made of or coated with ceramics. Metals can not withstand the temperatures of space or the corrosion of ocean depths. Human beings are conquering space, as well as building ceramic submarines and exploring the great waters, with the basic materials we are discussing.

Ceramics thus range from an increasing array of industrial products - such as computer chips, jet engine components, the nose cones of rockets, electrical insulators, blast furnace linings, bathroom fixtures, diamond-hard grinding and riling units - to more ancient uses of clay. In' addition to vessels and ritual objects, the use of clay brick for structures has been described through time in age-old records. Egyptian tomb paintings depict dredging clay from a river, bringing it to the bank, tamping it in wooden molds, drying the bricks in the sun, and eventually building a "firing mound" through which flames from twigs and brush must  have raged for a few hours, burning the brick to a degree of hardness; it is still the same today.

 Historically, clay has been used to create some of the world's best art: the tiles of the Persian mosques, the sculpture of the early dynasties of China, Pre-Columbian figures in Mesoamerica, the jars of Mycenae from 2000 B.C., and much ore. Porcelains, glass-like translucent wares, from the Sung dynasty of China were brilliant achievements of technique in fabrication and firing. Anyone who understands the ceramic process will be in awe of the clay work of past ages.

How then can we account for the soulful expressions of pure form, appealing to today's minimalist esthetic, that have appeared in isolated cultures, such as the water jars of the Jivaro Indians in the South American jungle? Surely it must have to do with profound aspects of clay itself. And much of art develops through the energies bouncing mongo people where cultures are juxtaposed.

Shoji Hamada, the potter who was declared a living National Treasure of Japan, said that to work with clay is to be in touch with the taproot of life. Confrontation with clay can bring us into contact with the self- earthy, intense, passionate. The Ancient pit kiln; drawings at excavation site, Bang Po, Thailand ' material is soft and sensuous, as well as a strong, hefty substance, at once resistant and pliable. It is so plastic that it can take any shape.

Yet clay work is not easy. It is not immediate; it requires a series of processes that are hard to control. Only at the end, after the firing, can one see the finished work. This limitation decreases as skill increases and experience makes pre-visualization possible. Ideas tend to be superseded by the sheer physical problems of working with clay Moreover,  some finished pieces are fragile, despite the hardness of the material. Let me briefly introduce the processes of clay work as an overview for the step-by-step chapters that follow, and then comment on the art of clay.