About traceability
Excerpt from the newsletter of March 26, 2024.
One of the first things I did as part of the Parcours Écoresponsabilité en métiers d'art was to start investigating the origin of the raw materials I use. As ceramists, we are fortunate to have direct contact with the “Earth”. However, from the outside, I find it easy to have an idealized and very romantic vision of reality.
The fact is that, unless you extract your own clay from nature, the "clays" we use are actually mixtures of different raw materials that are extracted from mines or quarries... around the world.
The advantage of these commercial clays is consistency from one batch to another, in addition to saving a lot of time for artisans. The big disadvantage is that as ceramists, we are dependent on the industry and we are never safe from a spectacular increase in the price of certain raw materials, or the shortage of others. Last year we experienced both...!
And there is no doubt that as we also use certain raw materials that will be in high demand with the energy transition, we will certainly be affected by a significant increase in the cost of these. And as we exploit these resources faster than they are renewed, we will certainly see the depletion of certain materials in the years to come.
In addition, the mining industry is not always very transparent about its practices, the origin of the materials it extracts and especially the conditions in which the materials are extracted and processed. Some materials can be extracted in one place, refined in another, then sent somewhere else to be distributed... And since these materials take thousands of years to renew themselves in nature, it is essential that the extraction of raw materials is done in a way that respects the environment... and communities.
And that's without mentioning the materials that are not found as such in nature and which go through energy-intensive and sometimes polluting processes to reach us...
In short, this is a complex subject and my research is far from over. However, I have managed to trace the origin of the majority of the raw materials that go into the composition of the clays and glazes that I use. I was very happy to see that the vast majority of the materials that make up my main throwing clay and glazes are extracted in the United States. However, for the moment, due to a lack of transparency from certain companies in the mining industry, I cannot determine with certainty the origin of certain raw materials. I am continuing my investigation in order to obtain answers.
I would very much like to work with more local materials, from Quebec, or even Canada, however direct alternatives do not always exist.
One thing is for sure, I want to explore different avenues that would allow me to limit the extraction of virgin materials for my production, in addition to experimenting with local clay. The good news is that alternatives exist, and I will be very happy to tell you more about them when I have started concrete research on the subject ;)