Julie Arnaud

Clay sculptor

My name is Julie and I make my home in Miribel-les-Echelles, France. My time is shared between bringing up my four children, taking care of my garden and animals, and creating in my clay sculpture workshop. After discovering various techniques of working with clay during a professional training course at Matière Contact in Lyon, I went on to specialize in decoration on high-fired earthenware, a technique and style dating from the 18th century.

Even though the events of my life took me away from activities around clay and ceramics, I never stopped dreaming of having my own workshop. In 2021 my living environment plus the fact of my children having grown up now made it possible for me to set up a workshop.

The things of my imagination take form through the creation of raku-fired stoneware sculptures. The technique of RAKU, a word meaning ‘happiness in chance’, was developed in the 16th century in Japan. There is a spiritual, philosophical, and magical side to this process, inviting the sculptor to let go and be surprised by the unexpected. What happens is that once the sculptures have been fired for about an hour, the kiln is opened when it is at a temperature between 900 and 1000 degrees Celsius and the molten pieces are removed from the kiln using metal tongs. The resulting thermal shock causes cracks to form on the surface of the glaze. The sculptures are then placed in a trunk filled with wood shavings and closed tight. The absence of oxygen brings out the colours of the enamel, and the carbon released by the burning shavings blackens the crackles in the enamel. The patterns in the crackling are therefore the result of a convergence between the fundamental elements of earth, water, air, fire, and ether together with the energies present at the precise moment of the firing.

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