About Patricia Shone

Winter view from studio

I have found that, unintentionally this powerful land influences my work. The inherent textures of clay as it is stressed and manipulated reflect the textures of formation and erosion in the hills and the subtle traces of the communities who worked the land; overgrown paths disappearing into the heather; grassy mounds in the middle of a forest, where a house or a byre stood; remnants of roads bypassed.
I use combinations of hand building and throwing to make my pots and to develop the textures. I have used a variety of firing methods; from low temperature raku to oxidised earthenware and and am now firing a small wood fueled kiln to stoneware temperatures with locally grown timber. As well as the thrill of learning challenging new techniques this is bringing my work closer to its source, the land and how we live upon it. I am influenced by my environment, by the communities and culture of the place and by the traces individuals leave upon the landscape.
There seem to be two elements recurring in my work as a result of living on the Isle of Skye - monumental mass and intimate detail; like taking a stone in my hands and feeling the form and weight of the mountain in it. The processes involved in turning the raw clay into ceramic reflect huge elemental forces, and yet the product can be as simple as a dish passed from hand to hand.
Some of the work is for use with food, some is contemplative, some hangs on the wall.

Raku Firing

Raku firing is fast with an element of the unpredictable in it. The weather plays a large part in the progress of the firing and the subsequent reduction/smoking. The pots are bisque fired to 1000°C in an electric kiln and then glaze fired in a homemade gas kiln to about 900°C.
At this temperature the pots are removed from the kiln and placed in a metal dustbin with mixtures of sawdust, seaweed, peat and paper. With the lid on this produces a reducing atmosphere that alters the glaze and surface of the pots.

Kiln lid open	Lifting out a pot	Hot pot into sawdust

Wood Firing

I have a small wood fired kiln in down in the garden which I fire with off-cuts of timber from a local saw mill. The firing cycle takes, on average, 15 hours of continual stoking (although I start with a couple of hours on gas to dry it out this being a very humid area). I use a small amount of soda in the firing, introduced through the fire box, for a little bit of sheen and sparkle on the unglazed areas of the pots.
I find the process very peaceful, one has to concentrate on the stoking without distraction. There is time for contemplation and gazing at the views but not for too long before the kiln requires the next feed of dry wood.
This firing process produces surfaces of warmth and beauty and vitality which reveal their subtleties over time.

Kiln firing at about 1200c	View over the kiln shed