Patricia Shone | On The Rocks

Contemporary Ceramics: Your vessels communicate a strong connection between you and the material – how the clay feels in your hands; how do you balance an material-led approach with the control seen in your finished vessels?

Patricia Shone: This is what I have been learning to do ever since finding this technique. There’s always more to learn. A shift this way or that in the emphasis between  the surface and the form. When I am making I feel a physical unease in my gut if a piece is wrong; if a curve is dissatisfying, or a texture too deliberate or not stretched enough. When I recognise that I’m being tentative about pushing a piece, then I push.

The eye is always looking for pattern, looking to complete a form, the best pieces engage the viewer in this process.

Contemporary Ceramics: It feels that there is a very personal dialogue between you, the material and the firing process, you talk of a balance between maker and material; are there times when this balance is disrupted, if so, how does it reveal itself, and is there a process to regain equilibrium?

Patricia Shone: I used to think that I was aiming for the perfect balance but I realise that my perception of ‘balance’ changes daily and depends on how I’m feeling (emotionally, physically & mentally). The idea of balance is as wide as the piece of string is long. I have been trying to disrupt the balance by deliberately breaking and damaging some work at all stages of the process – it’s harder than I imagined.  It has to feel spontaneous and genuine, unselfconscious, and I have to be in the right state of to be able to actually see what I’ve done.

I don’t yet know what these broken and catastrophised pieces are about.

Contemporary Ceramics: Your vessels have an energy, they feel poised and lifted; do you know how you will fire a piece as you make it? Do some vessels almost ask for a particular firing technique?

Patricia Shone: If I have a wood firing coming up then I will make specifically for that, choosing the clay and the forms to make the most of the space available. Generally the making comes first and as a piece develops I start to think about how I will fire it. Sometimes it’s obvious from the beginning of the stretching, other times a pot can sit in the bisque shelf for months before I see what it wants. When I am able to I try to achieve a smooth interior, this depends on how open the neck is and whether I can access the interior to paint with slip and smooth it with soft kidneys. When it works I prefer to raku fire them with the slip resist/naked raku technique, it makes such a beautiful surface and contrast with the rough black texture of the exterior.

Contemporary Ceramics: How has your practice changed over time?

Patricia Shone: It has changed over time but it has always been a search for natural surface textures. The changes have always been incremental.

Contemporary Ceramics: What has been a seminal and/or inspirational moment?

Patricia Shone: At college my tutor Dan Arbeid showed me how a change in the angle of a rim can affect the whole pot. By changing how the light falls on the rim, the piece can feel open and generous or closed and secretive, the potter needs to be in control of that. I have been a bit obsessed by rims ever since.

We went to visit Matsuzaki Ken in Japan and someone asked if he drew his ideas before making them. He looked incredulous and said ‘ why do Westerners always ask that?’. Until that moment I had felt my making process was somehow wrong, because it is not head and ideas led. I make with clay and then look for meaning or purpose. This was the moment of breaking free from all the years of learning rules and regulations and trying to conform to please or fit in with the system – it takes some of us longer to find this confidence.

Contemporary Ceramics: Has clay always been your artform? How did you first get involved in
working with clay?

Patricia Shone: I think it has always been my medium since schooldays in Devon. I have been sidetracked by sewing and into cooking to earn a living for 10/12 years. But they were pragmatic temporary solutions to real life circumstances.

Contemporary Ceramics: What was the first piece of art that really mattered to you?

Patricia Shone: I don’t remember the first, and so many subsequent ones are associated with particular stages in my life. I remember illustrated childrens’ books and the sense of being immersed in an illustration. If I had to choose one piece of art  to accompany my life it would be Malevich’s Black Square, it never loses it’s relevance.

Contemporary Ceramics: Do you find inspiration from elsewhere? What images keep you company in the space where you work?

Patricia Shone: I have very few images in my studio – a postcard photo of Gordon Baldwin to remind me to look for something positive in what I am making; a photo of an abandoned drystone built byre, a reminder of human history within this landscape. Mostly the images that keep me company are the views from the windows, the sea, mountains and sky.

Contemporary Ceramics: How does working with clay influence your life beyond the workshop?

Patricia Shone: Need to think more about this one!