Light and Shade

摘要

Somerset-based potter, Frederick Payne, explores the boundaries of image-making on layers of fine, translucent clay. Over the last 15 years he has experimented with printing and ways of adding light and shade to a fiberglass/porcelain mix. He has patented his technique of embossing images, and introducing pattern, texture and colour between layers of fine clay. Most recently, Payne has used these techniques to create innovative hand-built 'light sculptures,' in panel and cylindrical form. The combination of fiberglass and clay is not new. It was pioneered in the 1960s by Daniel Rhodes. In his book, Clay and Glazes for the Potter, Rhodes describes the advantage of his inventive mixture. Whereas organic fibres such as paper disappear when they are fired leaving voids in the finished mix, fiberglass does not. Fiberglass, the glass composition of which is soda-lime silicate, reinforces the strength of unfired clay objects. Rhodes describes how well the mix can be modeled and how the range of potential forms is increased. 'With a fibre-glass mix,' says Payne, 'forms can be self-supporting.' When fired, the fiberglass melts leaving no visible trace of its identity but it survives, unlike organic or combustible material. And it is non-toxic. For sculpture in particular, Rhodes comments, the mixture 'has great potential.'