OLARIA CERÂMICAS JEAN DOMINIQUE FERRARI SÃO MARTINHO DO PORTO

São Martinho do Porto

Associação de Cerâmica Contemporânea Colectivo Três Cês

 

français Jean Dominique Ferrari Ceramics

» General presentation
- Functionnal hand made unique ceramic pieces, glazed and wood-fired in reduction: 1260°/1300.
- Contemporary forms, natural raw material: ( clay,ash,oxydes), heterogeneous monochrome slip, spontaneous effects.
- Life shows through flesh and blood, not through masks or wax faces.
» The ceramic attitude
On the fringe of modern main stream ceramic I develop a limited production of functional ceramic pieces treated as unique sculptural forms. Bottles, vases, plates are all created from my own original design and technique.
I use local clay, prepare my own glazes, and fire at stoneware temperatures in a wood kiln I built to fit my purposes in 1994.
All the pieces are hand-made including the use of the potter’s wheel and slab-building. Even though my work bears the contemporary mark it is also meant to act as a counterpoint to modern art attitude.
» The ceramic items
The bulk of the work consists in long or short round necked bottles of geometrical square, rectangular, pentagonal or hexagonal forms 30 to 40 cm high. The production also includes vases and square or rectangular 30 to 40 cm sided plates. Each item has a glaze of its own with a dominant bright ( iron blues, turquoise, coper red, green colour). The result is partly un predictable, partly determined by the glaze formula and the firing.
» The ceramist
Ceramic is both a re-orientation in my life, closely linked with my life in Portugal,( I am french of italian rigin) and a long sought for existential and aesthetical experience. I have no ceramic academic formation. In 1991 I was introduced to reduction firing by a benedictine monk from the Daniel de Montmollin school, in France, and thus am largely autodidact: ( I built myself the wood kiln I use from traditional chinese stoneware glaze firing kiln designs and Daniel Rhodes book.
I essentially exhibit and sell my work at home.
I currently organize the national Contemporary Creative Ceramic Fair in Sao Martinho do Porto in wich 16 selected portuguese ceramists have participated every year since 2004. .

Cerâmica Jean Ferrari 2006 site by JMelo