Raymond RorkeRaymond Rorke Ceramics

Ready-made Leatherhards

These are found objects, clay remnants that I rescue from the studio’s scrap barrel. I spend time carefully hollowing out and stabilizing each one, without leaving behind any evidence of my hand. They are then fired to resemble raw, leatherhard clay, using an unusual technique I developed after much experimenting. The result is simultaneously artless and artificial, straddling the uneasy boundaries between material and object, making and collecting, ego and instinct.

 

Though I call this collection “ready-made leatherhards,” they are neither ready-made nor leatherhard (but at one time they were!).