Drora
A small studio in the Galilee.
I
"Three materials - paper, clay, ink. One room since 1970."
Three materials, one room.
Sculpture started first - small clay figures, fired in a community kiln a short walk from the studio. They are the slowest of the three. A single figure can sit for a month between sessions, while I decide what it wants to be.
Painting and works on paper came later, mostly as a way of resting from the clay. Then the masks, which sit somewhere between sculpture and painting and were never planned. The masks are built up layer by layer over a single clay mould, then the mould is broken and the mask hollowed by hand.
Most of the works on paper are etchings on hand-pressed paper, in small numbered editions - usually twelve. Each impression is signed and numbered on the reverse, and titled only when I am sure of what it is.
I sell directly through Gallery 53. Each piece is one of one or one of twelve. When a piece sells, that is the end of it - there is no second printing, no second cast, no second copy.
“The mask is always half-finished until someone wears it in their head. I let it dry slowly and watch what the paper wants.”
In the studio.
Photographs from the working week — clay on the bench, paper hung to dry, ink in glass jars.
Local stoneware, in 2 kg blocks. Wedged by hand each morning before work begins.
Hand-pressed cotton paper, drying overnight after each printing session. Twelve sheets at a time.
Etching ink in small glass jars. Mostly carbon black.