Barbara Weibel
Curriculum Vitae
From Swiss origin, born in 1964.
Has been living in France since 1986.
Followed ceramics courses in Switzerland.
Undertook study trips and teached in several centres in Mexico, Japan, India, Nepal and Egypt.
Exhibits in Belgium, France and Switzerland.
Practices calligraphy and integrates this into her work.
Inspiration
The art of ceramics has been very successful in Japan since the 16th century.
This technique is intimately connected with the zen philosophy and the tea ceremony.
The ceremony’s spirit is just like ceramics should be: simple, of a natural beauty and in line with the aesthetic goals of Japanese artists Barbara used to work with.
Barbara made variations on this, inspired by the theme of the sea (big sea shells with marble effect) and by the art of calligraphy.
Technique
Her work is turned on a turntable and built up with clay rolls.
The leather-hard clay is painted on with engobe and polished with agate stone. Afterwards she bakes her work up to 950° (biscuit baking).
Glaze is applied and shortly baked in a raku oven on high temperature (1100°).
Carefully she gets her work out of the oven with a pair of tongs, and softly places it on a bed of paper and saw dust (isolated from the air) and finally put on moist foliages.
Due to the sudden cooling cracks appear, resulting into the cracked structure. In a special procedure the glaze is peeled off, giving a matt effect (naked raku).
