A half slip-cast and half hand-built porcelain pot, decorated with a traditional Chinese porcelain glaze and a rock from the Cairngorms.

Dimensions:

Pot n.3 from my degree show installation - On the Pot's Road. I walked across the Cairngorms (from Clova to Aviemore) and collected materials along the way. 15km into my walk, I stopped and collected some peat. I was almost at the highest point of my journey - Crow Corries, when I was starting to feel the weight of the pot.

Peat is a material that I've been meaning to try in a glaze for some time. It's a mass of decayed vegetation or organic matter that used to be sourced by people as fuel when wood was scarce. I brought a handful of this material with me to the studio. I dried it in a small block for a week and then burned it. I can see why people would use peat to heat their homes as it burns very slowly.However, with the knowledge we have now, we know it's not a sustainable way of energy. Peat bogs only grow about 0.5 to 1 mm a year.

It's interesting how peat as a glaze material turned almost smoky brown. It is definitely unique in its smokiness. The base glaze is following a recreation of a traditional Chinese porcelain glaze + wood ash. The bottom of the pot was slip-cast and the top handbuilt in porcelain. By slip-casting the bottoms of my pots, I created a visual repetition. On the other hand, the handbuilding brings difference to the vessels.