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Helen Baron
Primary Type of Art: Ceramics
Description
I try to make pots that are simple in shape. Some are taller and more elegant, others are more rotund, but all of them are thrown, turned and burnished with the pit firing in mind, where these simple pots will be transformed by smoke.
The lines on the pots, the flashes of colour, the curls of grey and the dense black areas come from wires wrapped around the pots and an alchemical mix of oxides, salts and sawdust which imprint their patterns on the burnished clay in the pit firing.
I can influence the results of the firing, but never control it. The position of every pot and piece of wood, the intensity of the fire and the wind will all affect the movement of the smoke across the surface of the pots, and while this process is unpredictable, it is also very liberating and always tremendously exciting.