About Val Willy

My work is my statement - it is about love and joy and fun. It says there is always someone to love you and laugh with you, even if it is a ceramic dawg.

My whimsical sculptures are built in special raku clay. They are bisque fired to 1050 C. After cooling they are glazed and fired again to 1050 C and removed from the kiln while red hot.

They are then placed in bins of combustible materials which ignite. The bins are then tightly closed to provide a reduction burning atmosphere (i.e. burning with little oxygen); this turns the clay black and gives the glazes their characteristic crackle effect.

This technique of firing is based on an ancient Japanese method. It can produce exciting and unpredictable effects making each sculpture unique.