Intervention 04 : Testing and Firing
Last updated
Last updated
I converted my dining table into my studio for a week. After deciding to test fire the samples before firing the bigger piece I was going to make for the Work in Progress Exhibition. I wanted to understand how the natural clays would react during the firing. I contacted Maria, whose studio we had the chance to visit during the Situated Design Practices at Cal Negre, Hospitalet.
The firing went really well, and the samples turned out great. The clay from Collserola fired a lovely terracotta, since it contained a lot of red oxide. However, the clay from Llobregat Delta, fired a buff colour, and also was considerably more light weight than the rest of the samples, with a rougher texture - indicating the presence of more silt than clay.
Seeing that the firing went well, I decided to go ahead and fire the bigger piece as well. Unfortunately, the piece had a more complex form compared to the samples, which did not respond well when fired.
The smaller bowl was made of clay from Llobregat and evidently contained silt and lime, which reduces the plasticity and it could not hold its shape. Though the interesting part is, that on the first day of firing it seemed to hold its shape pretty well, but two days later it basically started crumbling in front of my eyes.
