Leah Brand
All work is thrown in my own studio. My chosen materials are porcelain and stoneware clay. I create most of my own glazes from the wood ash that I collect. This is a time consuming and laborious process, but is worthwhile to achieve such interesting and sometimes unique results in the finished pots.
After throwing, the the finished pieces are slowly biscuit fired in a gas fired kiln. This process takes several hours. The pots are then glazed by dipping or spraying, then loaded into the kiln.
Once again, over a period of several hours, the temperature is gradually increased up to a maximum on 1280 degrees celcius. The final part of the process involves reduction firing which purges oxygen from the kiln. It is the chemical reaction of the glaze in this reduction atmosphere that results in the depth and beauty of the end colours.
