Joadja aplite native porcelain stone, Australia

This pot was the catalyst for Steve Harrison’s 15-year journey to produce his '5 stones' series. All of Harrison’s porcelain work evolved from this pot. The ‘5 stones; works are made from the five naturally occurring sources of porcelain in the world: Jingdezhen, China; Yanggu, Korea; Arita, Japan; Cornwall, UK and Mittagong, Australia. Harrison's investigations into these sources stretch over 15 years, from 2002 to 2017. He is interested in the origins of these porcelain sources, specifically centred around a rock called serecite, which is ground and processed into a clay body without additives. It is this sourcing and pressing, and the making of the work near the source which is of interest to Harrison. Workng on the idea of sustainability, works are made from a 50-kilometre-wide palette of materials, not only for clay and glaze materials such as local rocks, shales, gravels and ash, but also the wood that fires the kiln.

The Joadja site has been built over: the source of this material is lost and this work is irreplaceable. Harrison discovered the source of this stone while walking in the remote Joadja Valley in 2002. A single white stone caught his eye and he took it back to his studio. Although he didn’t know it at the time, he had just discovered the second ever deposit of Australian porcelain. In 2004 he decided to make a test glaze from it. The results were astonishing: it melted into a beautiful, soft blue celadon/guan glaze. He took to his potter's wheel and made this small bowl and scratched the date - 23/7/04 - into its base. Harrison said: “That day changed my life.”