Ëlaboration

THE WATER: The phase of Earth and water is similar to any other turned pottery. I use stoneware and porcelain for ashes to support the fusion temperature. The stoneware gets dressed in dark colors, of iron. The porcelain takes only ash habits making more visible the delicate colours above white backgrounds. All the pieces are turned on the lathe because the circle centers and I get lost or absent very easily. When pieces begin to dry you should carve a base on them which will help to hold them during the enameling and on which parts will lean in the furnace. Before burning them (to 950º) they must be completely dry. Otherwise, they would explode during the process which lasts for eight hours.

THE ASH: Once finished this previous phase the long, laborious process of ash preparation begins. First step is checking what to burn or what has already been burned. If you have some contacts in the fields or in the countryside everything results much easier. Once the ash has been obtained from one single species of plant, it must be cleaned up and sift it to take out all that rests which has not been reduced to ash. You must wash, grind and dry it completely. After this you should combine it with different proportions of two of its own components: the silica and the alumina. These tests (of which I usually perform twenty by ash) will show us the right formula to obtain enamels that melt to the baking temperature, which do not drop or slip and that look pretty nice.

THE ENAMELING The ash is hydrophilic but insoluble, it likes water but water cannot reduce it. So, adding ash into water, stirring well and immediately bathing all burnt mud pieces in this suspension, they get ready to pass onto the furnace or cabin. Since water evaporates quickly the mineral or ash dust gets slightly adhere to the piece

THE FIRE These enamels need 1280º to get fused and vitrified. They also need to be burnt in oxygen reduction conditions, i.e. they must change, while in the cabin, from being oxides into silicates. For this all you need is closing partially the entrance of oxygen in the cabin. The flames, that need the air to burn, will get it from the chemical composition of the enamel. At this very moment pieces will be dressed with many colours. My first baking works looked like “black & white” films. This process of the fire lasts about nine hours. Shapes or forms are simple and most of the parts created are to be used. Colours are produced mainly from iron; with few exceptions (cobalt and copper) they darken the stoneware and brighten the porcelain.


	THE WATER: The phase of Earth and water is similar to any other turned pottery. I use stoneware and porcelain for ashes to support the fusion temperature. The stoneware gets dressed in dark colors, of iron. The porcelain takes only ash habits making more visible the delicate colours above white backgrounds. All the pieces are turned on the lathe because the circle centers and I get lost or absent very easily. When pieces begin to dry you should carve a base on them which will help to hold them during the enameling and on which parts will lean in the furnace. Before burning them (to 950º) they must be completely dry. Otherwise, they would explode during the process which lasts for eight hours.


	THE ASH: Once finished this previous phase the long, laborious process of ash preparation begins. First step is checking what to burn or what has already been burned. If you have some contacts in the fields or in the countryside everything results much easier. Once the ash has been obtained from one single species of plant, it must be cleaned up and sift it to take out all that rests which has not been reduced to ash. You must wash, grind and dry it completely. After this you should combine it with different proportions of two of its own components: the silica and the alumina. These tests (of which I usually perform twenty by ash) will show us the right formula to obtain enamels that melt to the baking temperature, which do not drop or slip and that look pretty nice.

	THE ENAMELING The ash is hydrophilic but insoluble, it likes water but water cannot reduce it. So, adding ash into water, stirring well and immediately bathing all burnt mud pieces in this suspension, they get ready to pass onto the furnace or cabin. Since water evaporates quickly the mineral or ash dust gets slightly adhere to the piece

	THE FIRE These enamels need 1280º to get fused and vitrified. They also need to be burnt in oxygen reduction conditions, i.e. they must change, while in the cabin, from being oxides into silicates. For this all you need is closing partially the entrance of oxygen in the cabin. The flames, that need the air to burn, will get it from the chemical composition of the enamel. At this very moment pieces will be dressed with many colours. My first baking works looked like “black & white” films. This process of the fire lasts about nine hours. Shapes or forms are simple and most of the parts created are to be used. Colours are produced mainly from iron; with few exceptions (cobalt and copper) they darken the stoneware and brighten the porcelain.