Angela Aradia

Bokeelia, Florida, USA

Title: Relic

Year of Creation: 2010

Glaze: Red and white terra sigillata

Clay Body: Standard 153

Dimensions: Height 6.75 inches, Width 3.5 inches

Artist's Statement: My love for ancient pottery manifests itself in a variety of ways. For awhile, I began creating pots that have a heavy nod to classical forms. As I continued studying these ancient wares, I became more interested in how time affected the surfaces. I began pouring over archeology books. I especially loved the ware that was pulled up from the sea. I found those surfaces far more interesting than the forms. It gave me the impetus to experiment with textured surfaces on pots. I started with high fire and then worked my way down the pyrometer to low fire techniques. I found that raku, smoke and saggar firing gave me the surfaces I wanted. So I began combining different techniques and then mashed them together in a way that built surfaces that were fragile and would change over time as the clay started to fall off the surface. In this piece, I create an aged surface with layering terra sigillatas onto a bisque pot. I raku fired them very quickly and then later saggar fired the piece about 4 times. Each time I fired, the results got better and better. I fell in love with this surface after the last firing and decided enough was enough.