Leslie Rosdol

enhanced landscape #1; slurry, colorants and found objects; 2 x 4 x 2 inches

enhanced landscape #2; slurry, colorants and found objects; 1.75 x 2 x 1.75 inches

enhanced landscape #3; slurry, colorants and found objects; 6 x 5 x 3.5 inches

Enhanced Landscapes

Working with clay and glazes on a daily basis can create a lot of waste by-products. When water is added to this mix—which is almost always— these materials break down to form a silty, mud-like substance. This is the ever-present ‘sludge’ found at the bottom of one’s bucket when cleaning up. I try to keep a container next to the sink so that this sludge does not go down the drain. 

This body of work started with the realization that this debris was composed of at least ninety-percent clay.  Even though there were a few different types of they follow the same basic rules. I filled several small paper cups—paper burns away—with the sludge, let them air dry for a few days and then fired them in an electric kiln. Some were fragile and completely crumbled; others oozed glaze and stuck to the firing shelf. But the survivors were these bumpy, craggy, broken landscapes, enhanced with an extra touch of color and a few found objects.

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