My Process

Clay is my material, surface, shape, colour and from where my work finds its identity.

Process

The kiln is my primary tool

I was part of the very first group of students in the Glass and Ceramic School on Bornholm, (now called The Royal Danish Academy of fine Arts Department of Glass and Ceramics (www.dkds.dk). 

My exam project consisted of building and firing a two chamber wood kiln with a fellow student. I wanted to do salt glazing and since 2000 I have built four different kilns for salt glazing. My two last kilns were built with invaluable help from Fergus Stewart from Scotland, who is no less than a master of wood kiln building. We built my two chamber climbing kiln from his design in 2011.

Firing it, is still 10 years later, a thrilling, albeit awe-inspiring journey. 

With a two chamber kiln and the possibility to still focus on salt glazing in the second chamber, it left me with the first chamber to explore new possibilities.   

In one’s effort to basically just try to obtain the most beautiful results from the combination of clay, slip, glazes and fire, it can seem overwhelmingly difficult, when standing on the threshold of a new journey of wanting to use manly local wild materials and stop importing plastic wrapped bags of clay from abroad.

Never the less, this has been a goal since adding an extra chamber to the kiln.

We have come a long way with this mission. “We” meaning Jesper, my partner, Ann-Charlotte Ohlsson, my colleague with whom I share firings and Iwami Shinsuke, a japanese potter from Mashiko, with whom I have shared this passion for using wild raw materials during the past 10 years in a project called “Bornholm Wild Clay Research Project”.

The clay is my material, surface, shape, colour and from where my work finds its identity.

Literally, I walk on pure clay every morning as I take my dog to the beach, a few minutes from my home. It is a type of clay that, when fired, is extremely suitable for very durable floor tiles. From my pottery, only a few kilometers east, I reach the old kaolin pit, the only one in Denmark. This unrefined kaolin was once turned into high fired bricks and like the tiles, exported throughout the world. From there, just another short ride, I meet the coast. Going south, and for every step that I take, a new clay formation is revealed, all with its own character and cultural history of what it was sourced and used for. One can find felspar, quarts sand, granite, limestone etc. within this same distance. It has always seemed very obvious for me to try to use what is at hand and to import as few materials as possible, to try to leave the smallest footprint possible. Many years on, I have realized that, what once set out to be a journey towards sensible reason, has turned out to be a true and humble love and respect to the soil that I put my hands into and to the potters who were here before me. I feel part of the island’s pottery history when struggling with this exact same material. When I read and understand technical information from a 100-year-old log book about a certain clay formation and I can honestly say that this information was very useful, then I carry a small hope that it is a way of keeping this skill and craftmanship alive. There is a way to go still, before all the imported plastic bagged clay has left my studio, but I hope get there eventually 

My most valuable lesson.

Never judge a firing from the first day of unpacking the kiln. A new relationship builds from an open mind.

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