Work in progress so far – part three: Introducing fire

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In a previous post I wrote about using fire in order incorporate empty space into my work. The empty space that encourages us to examine and find out what used to be there in the first place. I applied what I learned by using a blow torch on a concrete test piece as the equivalent to firing away combustable material in the ceramics kiln.

https://sandraholleart.blogspot.com/2021/05/exploring-empty-space-using-papermache.html

papermache forms in concrete, excess papermache burnt away


Now out of the kiln: the "holey" equivalents in clay that served me well before thinking about the concrete approach:

Combustable materials (chickpeas, paper, paper mache beads) pushed into the clay to burn away and leave the textured negative spaces

After the first firing I accentuated the areas where material had burnt off with oxides such as copper carbonate and manganese which I would try as stains on concrete later

examples of texture through burning away and staining with oxides - some of them will be used for mold making and casting in concrete 










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