L’INCONNU Amsterdam

House Artist 06 · Ceramic glaze

L’INCONNU Alma Verstegen

The kiln finishes every sentence I start.

Three tests, first row, 1993. Stoneware, glaze.
LX-AV-001 · Three tests, first row · 1993

Alma Verstegen tests glazes the way others keep a diary: one tile a day, numbered on the back, fired at the same temperature. The crackle, the pooling, the iron speckle are decided in the kiln, not by her.

For the House she chose tiles from three years of tests and set them in rows, as she keeps them in her studio on the Westerdok: a record of what fire does to colour.

Cone 9, reduction. Nothing wiped, nothing retouched.

Celadon pooling, 1993. Stoneware, glaze.
LX-AV-002 Celadon pooling · 1993
Iron and ash, 1994. Stoneware, glaze.
LX-AV-003 Iron and ash · 1994
Pale crackle, 1994. Porcelain, glaze.
LX-AV-004 Pale crackle · 1994
Olive run, 1995. Stoneware, glaze.
LX-AV-005 Olive run · 1995

House archive

  1. LX-AV-001Three tests, first row1993Stoneware, glaze
  2. LX-AV-002Celadon pooling1993Stoneware, glaze
  3. LX-AV-003Iron and ash1994Stoneware, glaze
  4. LX-AV-004Pale crackle1994Porcelain, glaze
  5. LX-AV-005Olive run1995Stoneware, glaze