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      Method and Risk

      Ewen Henderson has a particular affinity with his material. He points
   out that the oldest making substances are the clays of the earth's
   surface: they can be modeled, stretched, compressed and teased into
   shape. In this artist's hands the most complex structure result from his
   innate determination to explore its endless possibilities. His methods of
   construction give him the necessary freedom to add and subtract - to
   revise a piece as it is being made and thought out.
       He uses Camberwell Buff clay,"T" material and other similar clay
   bodies for their plasticity and strength. Their fired surfaces are fairly non-
   descript so Henderson uses them as a 'canvas' or armature on to which
   richer, more painterly surfaces are added in the form of bone china or
   porcelain. Tone and colour are introduced by working commercial stains
   and oxides into the clay. Used to excess these create a rough, blistered
   surface. Paper and organic matter may also be amalgamated with the clay,
   which on burning away can leave a frittered or cellular quality and negative
   shapes. In making the form the artist is simultaneously building in texture
   and pigment ('introducing a palette', as he puts it) so that body and colour
   are one.
       In building Henderson likes to keep options open and tries to maintain
   plasticity in the clay until the final stages. He will often make a form in a
   number of pieces, working concurrently on the different sections. The
   whole piece may be liable to late revision, and for this he now uses paper
   clay, made up of 30% paper pulp and 70% clay slip. With it he can add
   thin sections, fill cracks and alter and redefine the edges, even after
   numerous firings.
       Some may hanker after the romance of reduction firing but Henderson
   views his electric kiln as his ideal choice, liking the clarity of the colour
   it produces. He biscuits to 1100-1150 degrees C, so that the piece is
   strong for handling and adding slips and glazes, and then stoneware fires
   to 1220 degrees C. His usual practice is to fire twice, but he frequently
   returns pieces to the kiln for later adjustment.
       More an alchemist than someone consigned to slavish formulas,
   Henderson is concerned with extremes; pushing materials to their limits
   and creating 'conversation' between disparate elements. Expansion and
   shrinkage in the kiln will contort and split the surface, creating a rich and
   varied patina, almost geological in appearance. He takes risks, but this
   consummate craftsman certainly controls what he does, even if the outcome
   can look fragile and precarious: forms on 'the point of collapse'. Method
   does not seem to be about easy solutions; technical knots and blind alleys
   challenge him daily. He 'takes a great delight in playing with materials,
   inventing seductive processes from which significant quality may emerge'.

   David Whiting
   September 1995

        
         by Roger Berthoud
         1995   hardcover