Project Name: Circular surprise

Client: Ana illueca Ceramics

Work conceptual description:

How can you have as little impact as possible on the world you live in? How can you become more and more consistent with the values that underpin your way of life? How can you broaden your outlook towards caring for yourself, others and the world around you?

Circular surprise are plates made with the mud that is produced in my workshop after cleaning the brushes, tools or washing my hands. They are the leftovers that are normally thrown down the drain and that I recover and decant for reuse. In a wheel that seeks to generate zero waste in the creation of my ceramic pieces.

Craftsmanship implies a sustainable relationship with the environment, we recycle the muds we use and re-use our raw materials. This is common practice. What is not so usual is to use the sum of ceramic waste, leftovers that usually go down the drain. This is the project.

The ceramic waste that I generate when I make my pieces becomes a series of plates of uncontrollable appearance. The paste is the sum of my stoneware, the stoneware used by the students I teach and the porcelain of my workshop partner. Also the glazes.

That’s why I never know the final appearance of the pieces, the pieces change their appearance depending on the waste. It is really exciting to open the kiln and see them finished. Quite a surprise. 

In this case, the lathe is not used to make them. The shaping is done in such a way that it does not generate any waste again and thus closes the circle in its creation.

Work technical description:

Each plate is made from the clay leftovers that accumulate in the pile in the workshop. The pieces are shaped one by one, by hand and assembled in order to make the best use of the material. The clay is a mixture of stoneware and porcelain. 

The glaze is the result of all the brushes and tools cleaned in water from a bucket that I use to prevent the chemicals from running down the pipes of the sink. This water is called «haha» water. [yaya] and it is a tap water.

Circular pieces made from leftover stoneware and porcelain.

They do not contain substances hazardous to health.

Measurements: 17 cm diameter; 1.5 cm high

The pieces are fired at 1280º.