Marlene Boyle
A pinched clay pot is made without the use of a potter’s wheel. The shape of the finished piece is gently coaxed from a single ball of clay, imitating the process of the wheel with my hands. I also enlist the use of a rubber rib and wooden paddle to help stretch and smooth the clay.
Although primarily decorative in nature, my pots are created for more than simple viewing. They are brought to a careful, delicate balance without losing the natural cradle of the human hand; mine as the maker and, by extension, yours as you lift and hold the pot. I burnish the surface of the clay many times over during the process with a simple polished stone. This burnishing leaves behind a soft, sensual surface that begs your hand’s contact. My primary and preferred method of firing is the sawdust pit. There I can achieve a decorative range from simple and unembellished to more complex by using vegetation, metal leaf, or copper wire forms. These produce a visual texture while preserving the tactile smoothness. The bisque fired pots are buried in the ground between layers of sawdust (scrap gathered from the studios of local woodworking artists) and sticks. A fire is built on top then covered to allow the pit to slowly smolder down. The black in the finished pot is carbon that becomes trapped in the clay during the process.
My favorite ornamentation is the addition of foliage which is wrapped around the pot prior to firing. The moisture rich foliage resists the fire and leaves behind a smoked image (ghostly and almost photographic) on the finished piece. Sometimes even the tiniest detail of veins in the leaves is visible on the surface of the pot.No two finished pots are ever the same. They may hold similarities because of the foliage that has been used, but each has subtle and sometimes dramatic differences.
