Neil Hey
Philosophy
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Form and craft are the elements that unite in the design and construction of buildings of elegance and excellence.
The Practice of Architecture has been my passion through my professional career. But in Architecture there are physical restraints and compromises, as one processes the desires of the client, the restrictions imposed by financial realities and the frustrations of building legislation.
In my passion for pottery I find greater fulfillment through the freedom to develop clean uninhibited forms, revelling in the challenge to develop tensile properties from the inherently compressive characteristics of the Clay.
But the greater challenge is not the mastery of the craft of throwing matched to a purity of design; it is in the firing process itself, that transforms the humble clay earth to vitrified ceramic that may last for thousands of years. These are products beyond the mortality of concrete and steel.
In the firing process I delight in pursuing the elusiveness of copper in the glaze, using it in combination with tin, zinc and other elements to enhance and emphasize the clarity of the forms, as shown in the red-purple-blue colours in my vitrified stoneware bowls. The excitement and immediacy of raku firing also fascinates me, and again I develop the strong visual presence of copper, this time reduced to its raw form.
And I enjoy the serendipity of pit firing, exploring the edicts of vegetable matter and chemical additions, the patterns they produce, the colours that are diffused into the vessel.
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