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Yvonne Hegney

Pottery

"I feel a great affinity with nature and organic construction and texture, while an interest in ancient cultures adds dimension to my work with a sense of encrusted agelessness.  I find that clay is the perfect medium to convey a tactile message of sumptuous three-dimensionality, and, through the process of pit firing, add color and depth to each piece.  I then marry the finished form of clay with found objects of metal to incorporate all in a synergistic evocation of timeless transcendance.

The clay body is built upside down on a coil.  Thousands of pieces of pinched clay are stacked on the coil, much like laying the bricks in a wall.  After electric firing, various chemicals are applied to the piece in liquid form to generate color on the clay.  The piece is them pit fired, an ancient process of digging a hole in the ground and filling around the piece with a combustible.  I use pine straw.  After smoking in the pit for several hours, the piece is removed from the fire and scrubbed.  Many different found metal pieces then are tried with the clay body before a happy marriage of clay and metal is achieved.  After connecting everything together by welding and epoxy, the entire piece is waxed to seal it."