Ashraf Hanna was born in Egypt and now resident in West Wales, Ashraf's work is concerned with achieving the balance of creating ceramics which are inextricably linked to the forms and techniques of the ancient world yet utterly contemporary in their personality. He say's "I am always excited by the prospects of the interaction between the precision of my designs and the spontaneity of the fire.

The technique of burnished smoke-fired ceramics poses many challenges, it is seemingly simple yet one that is quite laborious and often fraught with difficulties. One can never take the results for granted since a successful piece is essentially the result of a collaboration between design and chance, precision and spontaneity, artist and elements - for it is the flames which ultimately breath life into the work".

Technical Information
The form is started as a pinch pot then developed using slabs. Once completed the form is refined with metal and rubber kidneys. Burnishing is very important to the final result, I therefore meticulously repeat the process until the desired surface is achieved. After a biscuit firing to 1000deg. c, the piece is subjected to the smoke firing using a variety of resist techniques. Recently linear designs have been achieved by carving in to leather hard clay.