Steve Matthews

Most of the forms I make are open dishes, bowls, lidded jars and vases, thrown on the potters wheel in a red earthenware clay. All the work is decorated by brushwork and wet-slip sgraffito, (liquid clay ‘slip’ applied to the piece while wet on the wheel and wiped through to create the decorative design). After an initial bisque firing a reactive glaze, usually containing silver, is applied and the piece re-fired in a gas kiln. The alchemy of the reduction firing creates the luminosity of the lustrous surface individual to each piece. I have a science background which has been useful in the development of the lustre technique.