About Isabelle Bedel - Sculpture Raku

"For me, art is an open door to freedom of expression, letting go and 'no limit.'" I have been a sculptor since 2006 and I am self-taught. Over the past 10 years, I have won numerous awards in various artist exhibitions. My need to create has become vital and my influences are brought to the mystical. I question our emotions, our relationships to life, to death, to love. I like to associate symbols with my sculptures, all kinds of rusty metal objects that I recover from abandoned houses, disused factories, with a story in them. From this material that inspires me, I model the earth until I find a balance between the two materials: fragile clay and implacable metal. I explore various ceramic techniques according to my desires. Smoking is like a pagan ceremony. Each firing is a ritual, something sacred. I place my pieces of clay in a pit dug in the ground, I place branches, leaves of trees and I light a big fire that I soften little by little. Carbon monoxide is deposited on the sculptures. It “simmers” for 24 hours and the next day it's Pompeii! We discover body parts that emerge from the ashes that are still warm. The Japanese Raku technique of the 16th century allows me to play with a risky side: 50% technical mastery and 50% chance. I take the incandescent part out of the oven at 1000° and the thermal shock creates the cracks.Read their story