The work moves from raw material through an intimate trajectory that ends with firing. Regardless of material, every object requires physical and mental presence. Your complete devotion. It requires your instinct to balance opposites. Each movement forms a shape. Your body literally writes itself into the shape, and has the potential to reflect your inner being. You take your tools out to dig in the earth until you find the right piece with which to grapple. Once found, you begin working the raw mass. You build a relationship with your material; wet it, knead it, let it dry, wait, make it pliable. An abstract idea starts to become a continuous, patient hand movement until some form arises. The clay must remain both soft yet stable, a tricky balance to achieve. Or you work with porcelain, the “white gold” of materials. Porcelain is capricious and difficult to work, like a fragile mass that often chooses to evade. You must first make it your own, to win it over with your hands until it absorbs your movement, joins in, and takes shape. The rarity of such a material demands constant, critical decision making until the final step of firing.