Jan Henderson

After an initial biscuit firing in an electic kiln, I place my work on a bed of sawdust in a pit kiln and cover it with organic materials, such a dried bnanna skins and seaweed. The rest of the kiln is filled with fire wood before I light the whole thing, cover it with metal sheets, and allow it to burn for 24 hours. Soft delicat colours are burned onto the ceramics, and the process if finished by giving each piece a coat of wax, which gives them a light sheen and preserves their colour.

This way of achieveing decoration seems to exact fit the pieces that I make. I like the serendipitous nature of the outcomes, even though I have a very high failure rate, the fierceness of the final firing causes many pieces to disintegrate. I have just started to experiment with glaze firing some of my pieces before putting them through the pit kiln firing. They still seem to get pattern burnt onto them although the colours are much more muted. This is a process that I want to continue investigating, as I believe it to be unique.