The Artist Making Ceramics Without a Kiln

Firing ceramics is an ancient and historically unchanged practice. Talk us through the journey that led you to think outside such a long-established square?

Everything started in March of 2020 where I found myself in isolation due to the worldwide pandemic of COVID-19. As a craftsperson living inside my tiny apartment in London, I struggled to express myself and continue practising my beloved craft, that of pottery. Lacking the material and the needed equipment, I came along with the question, and now what? Having no access to workshops or outdoor space, my main problem was firing my pieces. At this point, I understood how dependent I was on my current equipment, but I also had time to rethink my own practice as a designer and realise the impact of my beloved craft on the environment. If we unpick every aspect of ceramics, we will identify quite a few problematic areas. One of them is the energy-consuming and carbon-heavy kiln firing process. So, I started wondering if I could create ceramics differently. What if the next breakthrough would be self-fired ceramics? Instead of associating this material with high temperatures, maybe there was room for creating pottery without firing at all. Having this desire as my starting point, I began the journey of exploring how the pottery of the future could look; ceramics that are more sustainable, embracing new processes and techniques.

How did you land on industrial biotechnology as an alternative mode for 'firing' ceramics?

In the beginning, I started looking at different recipes and ingredients that would allow me to make objects as hard as ceramics. I used materials I had available at home. More specifically, food ingredients and I started experimenting in various ways. However, the main issue with these biomaterials was that they were not waterproof. One of the ingredients that I had been using and had good properties was eggshell powder. Eggshells mainly consist of calcium carbonate, a common substance found in rocks as minerals, calcite, and aragonite. So, I started thinking about how I could naturally produce calcium carbonate. In the last few years, scientists have discovered that calcium carbonate can naturally form by bacteria. I read various scientific papers on this topic, and the next step was to try to contact those people and learn more about this promising process. I had the pleasure to discuss with two scientists from the University of Cape Town that helped me understand the basics of this biological process and gave me some suggestions to move on. Then through a lot of experimentation, failures, and tests I had conducted I managed to develop this new process of creating ceramics.

What advantages does this method have over firing?

Firings are a significant problem thanks to the carbon impact of heating a kiln to temperatures as high as 1,300 °C. Over 70% of the emissions from the ceramic manufacturing industry are created in the firing process. Ceramic production has two main sources of emissions. On the one hand, there are the emissions generated by burning fossil fuels to power the process. It is this aspect where most of the efforts for improvement are centred, with companies switching to green energy providers. But still, using a lot of power is unavoidable. On the other hand, there are those emissions caused by the process, due to decarbonization of the clays and some auxiliary materials with a natural carbon content that is released during the baking process. These emissions are very difficult to avoid, as they are intrinsic to the process itself. But even if all the areas mentioned could somehow change and improve towards more sustainable approaches there is still another aspect of ceramics. What happens with the ceramic waste either is post-consumerism waste or an industrial scale one? I was quite impressed to find out that an estimated 1.5 million tonnes of waste are produced yearly only from ceramic tile manufacturing in the European Union alone. A large amount of tile manufacturing waste is pure waste—it’s sent to landfills or used as a filler in other materials as a means of disposal. That is because those materials aren’t as easy to reuse as raw material ingredients, which can be recycled directly back into the process. My method of making ceramics not only uses the minimum energy required but also the main ingredient is ceramic waste that otherwise would end up in landfills polluting the environment. For all these reasons mentioned above, using the biomineralization process for creating ceramics is a more sustainable solution that minimises gas emissions and waste to the environment.

Is it versatile?

Biomineralization is a multidisciplinary field that draws on researchers from biology, chemistry, geology, materials science, and beyond, even to designers like me who are passionate about exploring its amazing applications. I would definitely say that this process has many possibilities and could adapt to different requirements. This process can be used from soil reinforcement to self-healing building structures to new materials and much more to be explored.

Do you see it as being scalable and accessible in the future?

I believe that this could be scaled in the future and be used by other studios and factories as an alternative way of creating ceramics. There are already companies that use biological processes and biomaterials to create products that successfully replace the unsustainable existing ones and propose greener alternatives. I guess it is a matter of time where these companies will be the norm and not the exception. The potential of using biotechnology is enormous if we think that most of the physical inputs to the global economy could be produced biologically. Businesses and governments need to focus on this field as climate change urges for immediate action.

What stage are you at in the project and what are your plans for the future?

I am in the process of applying for funding and finding companies that would like to invest in this project. This will give me the opportunity to create my own studio, buy the needed equipment and collaborate with scientists to help me improve and scale up my process. In the meantime, I am researching further applications and possibilities of this method, trying to optimise my current material but also explore bio based glazing and colouring. It requires patience and time when you are working with living organisms, and it can be a long process of trials and errors until you find the perfect formula. My plan for the future is to manage to turn this thesis project to “reality’’, making this process a commercially viable alternative to traditional ceramic production.