David Burns

Lives and works in Hutton-in-the-Forest, Penrith, UK

Artist statement

My pieces are all individual although I do make multiples and sets. I work mainly in the Japanese tradition. I like my work to be handled as it allows people to discover and experience different key aspects of the pots. For the last three years since relocating to Hutton in the forest I have been working with colour and surface texture within the manabigama firing process trying to keep the unforeseen random effects from wood firing but introducing brighter colours and more directed results. To obtain this result many extra firings at different temperatures are required I have been experimenting with enamelling, transfer printing kintsugi and gold and silver leaf. I also make use of exotic wood and ivorine to make stoppers and lids for my water jars, tea caddies and storage vessels. I work within the principles of Wabi-Sabi (in Japan the art of finding the beauty in the broken or imperfect ) and get great satisfaction from the combination of the old and new I choose to introduce decoration into my work at the very beginning and continue to overlay and add to forms in a variety of ways via addition and subtraction making use of a variety of slips, minerals and scriffeto technique. It is important to adjust and alter along the way until I achieve my aim. My present work is influenced by modern world issues and my attempted antidote for it. I have always been influenced since a young student by the Japanese tea ceremony, mythology and legend and medieval European ceramics. I...

Artwork