This ceramic artist’s work is based on the development of personal glazes using plant ashes and crushed rocks. Over the past fifty years, he has studied the structural and chromatic characteristics of these natural elements to produce poetic landscapes on stoneware and porcelain pottery.
Its creation is completed by a wood firing using species selected for the desired aesthetic result.
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Artist word
November 2024.
In the grand kiln of Les Couturiers (La Selle-sur-le-Bied), the Jubilee firing marks the end of fifty years of wood firings for Francis Leloup, a self-taught potter who set up his final workshop in this remote hamlet at the forest’s edge.
The clays used are stoneware-rich, from the quarries of Saint-Amand in Puisaye or La Borne in Berry. Additionally, a few porcelains resistant to the full flame of the grand fire are included.
The pieces may be left raw in areas where rich, warm colors naturally develop on the clay or glazed for a different finish.
The glazes, all personally crafted, are developed from blends of plant ashes (hardwoods, softwoods, straw, grasses, and various hays) and crushed rocks (chalk, talc, feldspars, etc.). These mixtures must melt at the temperature at which the clay seals.
Some pieces may be decorated with glazes of the same nature.
In the grand kiln, the firing will last approximately 24 hours, with an evolving selection of wood essences: hornbeam, chestnut, and finally finely split oak heartwood from 1000°C onward, reaching up to 1350°C in the hottest part of the kiln.
And only after four days of suspense—necessary for cooling—will the verdict be revealed when the kiln door is opened.
At the pottery of Les Couturiers, the focus is on the development of glazes using the limitless range of rocks and plant ashes that nature offers the potter.
The goal being to achieve a “material” effect, which the semantic limitations of the profession scarcely allow to be explained more precisely.
A beautiful piece radiating a luminous and warm energy will be said to have “substance,” a term that encompasses all the gratifying sensory parameters that can resonate with a sensitive mind: texture, depth, colors…
Thus, the essence of pottery at Les Couturiers is to strive to create only pieces that have “substance”—pieces that resonate with everything connected to Nature: flora, fauna, rocks, other handcrafted objects, and sensitive interiors.
Pieces from before the definitive robotization of the world… or perhaps after the failure of the definitive robotization of the world… thanks to you.
-Francis Leloup