What's in a Pot?

What’s in a Pot?

Patricia Shone on stone, clay and fire.

by Patricia Shone

What’s in a Pot? stone, clay and fire

PATRICIA SHONE

Patricia Shone’s work is sought after globally.She’s just sent a large box to NewYork and another to Italy,but her work is inspired by the purist of things:stone,clay and fire.In her own words...

Thefeel of raw clay in my hands is my prime motivation for making. It is a physical connection to the physical world around me - a visceral process, not always comfortable, often challenging and increasingly tiring. Clay is a broad and complex medium demanding practical solutions which helps balance the introspection that comes from working alone. I have learned to give precedence to the physical process over and above intellectual input, allowing my inner and non-verbal senses to give voice to the work.

My work is hand formed in all aspects of its concept and creation. It is about finding the points of contact and balance between the maker and the material. It is inspired by the control of form in quotidian functional vessels whilst releasing the piece from the constraints of function by the techniques used to develop the surfaces. It is material and maker working together, neither having mastery over the other.

The formation of clay is mostly from the climatic erosion of rock (a few come from in situ weatheing). The origins of the material lie in the enduring rock beneath our feet. The processes of firing that a potter uses to complete their work replicate the monumetal forces of heat which create the original rocks.

Erosion Jar | continued pat ceramic 39cm(h) x 31cm(d)

I use hand forming methods developed during a period of ill health when I was unable to throw or hold more than a handful of clay. The technique is one of stretching the clay, opening out it’s matrix to develop and extenuate the inherent textures within the clay, a combination of control and release.

The nature of clay used in this way allows it to speak of the continued erosion and weathering of the land we live on; the traces made by the passage of humans across the surface of our planet and the tensions of the container and its contents. It is an expression of myself as an individual and of the human history of the material and how it connects one person to another, across civilisations, a bowl passed from one hand to another’s.

Patrica Shone, February 2023

Erosion Bowl raku 17cm(h) x 17cm(d)