2023: Mutual Texture; duo exhibition Silvertant & Davies
Terry Davies was born in 1961 in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, United Kingdom. His apprenticeship as a ceramist began in the late 1970s in a studio that followed the tradition of Bernard Leach. His subsequent training took him all over the world: from the ceramist village of La Borne, in France, where he learned the art of wood-firing, to Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia, Latin America, and finally, the hills of Tuscany in Italy, where he decided to settle in 1998.
In the early 2000s he established his studio in the countryside of Certaldo, where has lived and worked ever since, an area in which the strength of the earth is all the more noticeable in the majesty of the landscape’s steep ravines and arid cliffs, originating from particular erosive phenomena. He is a major attraction at various international pottery markets and festivals, where sometimes he is also invited to demonstrate his experimental kilns.
Terry Davies’ current work springs from a unique methodology that he began developing in the U.K some years ago. First, he combines several different high temperature clays, which he mixes onsite in particular combinations. While the clay is still fresh, he adds varying amounts and kinds of impurities, depending on the piece being made. Working initially on the wheel, he expands the forms from the inside, adding clay. At the same time, he makes cuts and scars in the piece; these open to create a dry earth look when finished.
The firing process is equally important for Davies’ work. The kiln reaches 1300 deg centigrade in an oxygen-starved atmosphere, which forces through to the surface the added impurities hidden in the clay - natural materials, such as natural earth oxides and slag from Etruscan bronze-making sites on the coast of Toscana. This results in each piece being absolutely unique, varying in colour and texture.
