Raku, a Japanese pottery technique, creates a thermal shock in the kiln that will either destroy the work or make it into something amazing.
Post by Susie.
Amy Pratt was unable to throw pottery for close to a year due to injuries caused to her chest wall by coughing too hard and for too long from exposure to toxic chemicals. The chemical exposures she endured at work, coupled with myriad things they were doing to her body, stopped her from doing much of anything for a long time.
“My hiccups and vocal tics were getting worse with activity,” Amy says. “The hand and arm spasms make throwing very challenging.”
But it didn’t stop her completely. Like her pottery in the kiln, Amy burned through the worst of it and is back at her craft making balls and rattles.
“It started out as something to do to practice different texture, firing, and glaze techniques,” she says. “I wanted to try to do something repetitive, to see how I could improve my skills or see how long before I got really bored from it.
“I am now planning to make fountains or some kind of outdoor sculptures out of them.”
Amy is practicing her craft in the studio at the school where she used to work. She started throwing there last spring, before she was asked to leave her job of nine years.
Amy, in her early 40s, has been throwing since she was eight years old, during her first trip to summer camp. She says she didn’t have anyone show her how to do it, she just “went at it,” sometimes spinning art across the room.
“I was able to center, and make something close to a small bowl,” she says. “There is something magical, something primal about taking a lump of clay and creating something with it.”
Amy’s first clue she had Multiple Chemical Sensitivity came in 1997 when she had two isolated exposures from which she completely recovered.
But in 2001, she was leveled by an exposure to lacquer oil, and she almost lost her job because she was too down at work and too ill for close to a year. In 2005, she was again knocked out by paints, carpet and glues, and was out of work for five months. By late 2006, she was experiencing exposures almost daily, which, when coupled with a back injury, led to further complications. She filed a total of six worker compensation claims in three years. She’s now fighting for a disability claim.
“I am often asked, ‘Why do ceramics, why expose yourself to more chemicals and dust?’” Amy says. “Why? Because it keeps me sane.”
Amy says the studio where she throws is very proactive with keeping clay dust down to a minimum, and she avoids using the glaze room when the sprayer is being used.
“I wouldn’t be able to do anything there if I didn’t have the support of the people who run the place,” she says.
So far, the worst exposures at the studio have been fumes from glues, hand lotions and perfumes. There has only been a few times when she could not enter the kiln yard due to something bothering her.
“Throwing helps me cope by getting out and being with other people,” Amy says.
She describes Raku, the Japanese pottery technique she uses, as creating thermal shock that will either destroy the work or make it into something amazing. “You have to let go and see what happens, there is only a small amount of control,” she explains. “Clay can take a lot of abuse, as long as you don’t drop it.”
The analogy of Raku to life with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity is unmistakable.
“When I finish my self portrait, I plan on raku-ing it, using all of the boxes of paperwork generated from my claims to be burned in the process,” she says. “Fire, good.”
Photos ©Amy Pratt.
You can view more of Amy’s pottery on her photo page at The Canary Report’s social network.
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