The Art of Alternative Firing
Thinking in Clay
Thinking in Clay is a studio practice rooted in the unpredictable beauty of alternative firing — where fire, smoke, chemistry, and intuition converge to produce work that can never be exactly repeated.
Active since 2020, the studio explores a range of ancient and experimental techniques: Raku, Naked Raku, Pit Firing with aluminum foil saggars, Obvara (a Belarusian technique using a fermented water, flour, sugar, and yeast mixture), Beer Obvara, Horsehair & Sugar Raku, Sodium Silicate Raku, and reduction firings with newspaper and sawdust. Many pieces are finished with mica and terra sigillata slips to enhance the luminous, organic surfaces these processes create.
Work ranges from intimate vessels and bottles to sculptural wall pieces — each one shaped by the kiln as much as by hand. Notable pieces include Desiccated, Alluvial Drift, Convergence, Cosmic Strings, Currents, Goddess Emerging, and Rainbow Love. Community firings at Serpent Mound are also a recurring part of the practice.
Recent work appears under the D'Groovy series — bold, colorful, and playful expressions within the same alternative-firing tradition.