Process

Vessel-Landscape-Process

a personal insight into the work of David Roberts

3. Process

The processes I use to make and fire my work are not a neutral means of realising a predetermined intellectual idea. They are powerful propellants in the development of my work, interacting with ideas and intuition and suggesting possibilities. Sometimes the forms and surfaces are driven by ideas and are consciously developed to give a certain quality of form or surface I need, other times the introduction or development of materials or techniques suggest a whole new universe of references and aesthetic qualities which I can choose to explore or reject.

Since the mid 1970s I have intentionally focused on making large, coil built and Raku fired vessels. I love this way of making as it gives me rounded, volumetric forms which serve as a wonderful three dimensional canvas upon which surface incident derived from the Raku firing can play. The sense of volume and presence that a piece emits when worked over along time period is important to me.  To intensify this tactile and timeworn quality, pieces are often ground and polished after firing.

I use the Raku process as it gives me a consistent and controllable tool in the orchestration of the strength, quality and pattern of carbonisation. The surfaces are not merely covering the form but penetrate deep into the wall of clay resulting in a fusion of form and surface.

At present I am not concerned with colour but with the way richness of tonal variation enhances and defines form. These surfaces are derived from two phenomena; the control of crackle patterns and spotting; resulting from the chemical and physical changes to materials that occur during the rapid firing and cooling of the Raku process, and the linear markings resulting from my application of layers of slip and glaze. These marks both refer inwards to the vessel as a record of the energy of the process to which it has been subjected and outwards as a sign or indicator towards the landscape.

I am deliberately attempting to expand and develop the language of Raku as a valid and significant statement within contemporary ceramics. As with many contemporary western Raku ceramists my work is highly individual and eclectic. It has no direct connection to the Japanese tradition of Raku, though if you search hard enough there are similarities and analogies to be found. For me, existing at this time, as a contemporary ceramist in the western European country of England, the word Raku is a generic term highlighting an area of ceramics, the distinguishing feature of which is ware being drawn hot from a kiln and then something being done to it.

What is important is the fundamental inherent contribution of my chosen materials and processes to the completed vessel’s qualities and presence.