30 percent
This research started as just a silly question. Clay is found all over the earth, but we buy clay in pottery shops. What if we tried to find our own clay? Even if it wasn’t perfect, or if it didn’t hold glazes the way that industrial clay could– what would that look like? So, we looked up the clay deposit maps of Spain where we could go? It started with looking into soils in Casa de Campo, the mountains of Segovia and near to Bardenas Reales. Sourcing local clay connects us to our landscape and transmits a story through the object that we create.
What was amazing is that we also looked into urban construction sites. It began with a construction site by my house. We mixed the clay we found from the mountains of Segovia. Surprisingly it worked. We partnered with Mo de Moviemento to help them make their plates for their restaurant in Prosperidad, using their construction waste and turning it into safe, beautiful and high quality products that they could use.
It has been a long learning process. Clay from the mountains is very different from clay from urban construction sites. It was a lot of testing and experimenting. What temperature would work? What sort of glaze would work? How could we make a consistent texture or material?
In the end, it has opened a whole new world of possibilities. Relying on what we find and testing what works and figuring out how to make it work – makes the process interesting and enriching.
