The Archie Bray Foundation is constructing a new building that will mark a new era in its history. The David and Ann Shaner Resident Studio will provide the Bray with top quality facilities to match its world-class reputation as an establishment for ceramic arts. Clay Body Incubator is a sculpture representing this new creative space, which also acts as a wood-fired kiln. The ritual process of firing it will be a celebration of the ceramic creativity this new building represents.

It will be fired in-situ for the public to view on the evening of Saturday 4th September 2004. When the sculpture is at peak temperature it will be unveiled, revealing its glowing firey orange form.

Kilns and buildings are poetically connected. In the same way a building is structured internally to house human life, so a kiln is built to house fire. Like life, fire needs constant feeding to grow. It can be unpredictable, yet it is always warm. When it dies it turns cold. Fire, in the contained space of this sculpture-kiln will bring the sculpture to life through intense heat and vivid light.

Clay Body Incubator is built on a site where many house bricks made before Charles Bray bought the factory still lie. It is constructed on a platform of firebricks used by the Bray Factory before its closure. In this layering of histories this sculpture project symbolizes the Brays firm connection to its historic roots, but like the phoenix once again rising from the ashes, its reaches out, in a new form towards the possibilities of the future.
TOM BARNETT 2004


Information displayed at site of Clay Body Incubator. August 22nd - September 5th 2004. The Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts, Helena, Montana, USA. This event was the conclusion to a six-week residency researching this type of firing technique, and the history of ceramics at the Bray.

A big thank you for the kind and generous help of Bray Director Josh De Weese, and the rest of the team at the Bray.

Images 15 - 18 are the copyright of Cheri Thornton. A photographer artist living in Helena Montana. All other images are copyright of Tom Barnett.

Thanks also to Arts Council England for their generous financial support for this project.


INGREDIENTS
800Ibs Clay
45% Clay body mixture from Clay Business
10% Wollastonite (reduces shrinkage, increases thermal shock resistance)
40% Grogs of varying sizes (reduces shrinkage, increases strength)
2% Spodumene (increases thermal shock resistance)
3% Paper pulp (fibre strengthens clay during construction)

2 cubic meters wood
300 Firebricks
50ft Ceramic Fibre Blanket / kaowool
30 ft Wire
4 Large Kiln shelves
Saw dust and various oxides for the firing.

TECHNIQUE
The whole structure must be built in nine days. It will then dry for two days to begin firing on the twelfth. To allow an efficient firing of the whole of the structure of the sculpture building two fireboxes are built next to each other to form the L-shape. Kiln shelves are laid over each firebox apart from the last 10" at the end furthest away from the stoking hole. The sculpture is constructed over the whole of the two fireboxes including the two holes. The sculpture is constructed internally using buttresses and supports to give it strength and support the heavy weight of the clay roof. Two detachable chimneys are made and where they are to be positioned on the sculpture (furthest away from the entrance into the sculpture from the firebox), bits of the sculptures roof are cut out and kept to one side. During the firing they will be kept in the firebox.

When the sculpture is dry, it is covered with a thin layer of oxide - possibly glaze even and then wrapped in Ceramic Fibre Blanket and secured with wire. The firing goes on for 36 hours, gradually the temperature rises inside the sculpture until it gets to 2000 degrees Fahrenheit. At this point which should be at night the blanket will be taken off the sculpture to reveal to incandescent form within.