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It all started in the summer of 2001. I was exhibiting at a potters fair at Moulins la Marche in the north of France, where each year they invite two guest potters/ceramic artists from a different country. That year they had invited Francis Boateng and Samuel Lovi, both from the Accra region of Ghana. While there Francis said “And if there are any potters who would like to make a return trip to Ghana…….” . Well, there was me. Because of other commitments on both my time and money I couldn’t go straight away but said I would go at the beginning of 2003. Francis admits to not really believing that I would ever get there, but I did, My eighteen year old daughter Helen came with me as she is currently working with me learning ceramics. Francis and I planned to work together for several weeks then hold a joint exhibition of Francis´ sculptures of people, and my animal figures. Francis also told me about this wonderful person, Aba, and about Aba House, and suggested we participate in a ceramic furniture workshop that would take place while I was in Ghana. I thought it was a good idea, though the idea of making ceramic furniture had never really entered my head before. Aba arrived shortly after we did, and also offered me the possibility of doing some of my work towards the exhibition there. Working part of the time at Aba House was an excellent idea. I worked mostly up on the flat roof terrace, under the shade of a small thatched roof from where I could see what was going on all around, and of course everyone could see me too. Seeing me there often, the neighbours would say hello to me, or wave, and the children would shout their greetings. Curiosity brought some of them to see what I was doing, and some of them came back several times to see how my work was progressing. I watched one of them with interest, Salim, a cement artist, who was creating murals on the walls of the property next door. When we in turn went to see his work he explained to us what he was doing, and the traditional meaning of each scene. He was one of the people who came at the end of the day when we held the workshop. He had never tried making things with clay before, but after a few tips on technique he was good at it and enjoyed it too. At home I work with two different clays, one a very fine white earthenware, the other a grogged white clay, but in Ghana white clay doesn’t really exist. Francis had been liaising with the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research to try to produce a white body. We tested the only thing on offer but it was extremely short and needed quite a high firing temperature, and wasn’t very white either. I settled for a red earthenware body which was fairly plastic but not at all grogged, which made larger pieces difficult. I thought about furniture, and in preparation for the workshop I made three small size models of stools, two of which I made full size. The third one I decided wouldn’t be possible to make and dry successfully given the climate and the fact that I was working with an untried, ungrogged clay, (but I hope to make it here in cooler, damper France one day). We managed to successfully dry the two stools and transport them to Francis´ workshop, carefully packed in boxes of sawdust for biscuit firing. Francis´ driver Kwame did a good job of driving slowly and carefully, avoiding as many potholes and bumps as possible, while Helen and I sat in the van with the boxes cradled gently on our knees. They survived firing too and came out of the kiln just in time for the workshop, arriving still warm in the afternoon. Of course we promptly tried them out, and they were quite comfortable too. The workshop was really interesting, with a good mixture of ideas and techniques, and time to discuss ideas and problems while we ate the delicious lunch that Talktrue had prepared for us. Two days is not long enough, but it is difficult to make it longer as some of the participants came a long way, and they had other work commitments too. Finance is another problem. Being an artist or craftsperson is not easy in Ghana, with a sliding economy and a lot of uncertainty, art is a luxury affordable by only a few, even though there is a big tradition of art there. Most artists have to turn towards the export market to make a living, and often the importers are only interested in a very limited stereotype of what is “African” art. Of course they also want to bargain hard and squeeze the price till it is virtually impossible to make more than a pittance. Perhaps one day the exploitation of the Third World by the richer more developed countries will cease, but we’re all a long way from it yet, and should be ashamed of our behaviour. One of the best things about our stay in Ghana was the people we met. I have visited Africa twice before, having spent a total of 4 months cycletouring in Kenya and Uganda when Helen was a small child, but we were “just tourists”, always moving on. It is a completely different experience to work with people who don’t regularly work in the tourist trade, and to continue to work with them till the end of the project, with the mutual exchange of ideas and culture that this brings. This includes not only locals but Aba and Gigliola, whose culture isn’t the same as mine, though it is more subtly different. We also met friends and relatives of the people we worked with, and the contact continues with some of them becoming our good friends. Of course

The most important aspect of my stay in Ghana at Aba’s house was the human quality of the people I met there. Aba’s house is like a magnet , there is a permanent coming and going of children, neighbors, local workers, artists coming to show their work and share a talk with Aba and her friends, visiting artists from other countries, local craftsmen and everybody is open to listen to somebody else’s experience and the atmosphere is very light and joyful. The idea of the workshop was to continue the work done by Barbara in august, however the participants being different persons we worked on new ideas. Each person made several sketches and a maquette of one of the ideas and then the group chose three projects to work on collectively, due to time limitations. I had to work on those projects during the following days in order to complete them and Emmanuel and Edward came back several times to help. None of these projects was fired as they required a very slow drying process. I was quite impressed by the level of training and knowledge of the participants in the workshop, their main interest or worry I should say, was the difficulties in developing glazes as they are not produced locally and raw materials are not easy to find. Finding white clay is another problem. Anyway we decided to make some glaze tests for cone 4, assuming that with Kaolin, Feldspar, Calcium Carbonate and Dolomite which are produced locally we should be able to develop a white glaze. We worked on a series of combinations of those four materials in different proportions using a spoon for measuring as no scale was available. I also made three clay tests mixing white clay and red clay in different proportions to see if we could develop a body for middle range temperature. Sammy came to help with the firing which was rather problematic, we started very late in the morning because of the rain and because we had to fetch the gas cylinder. The pieces were not thoroughly dry so we started a very slow fire with the kiln half open, increasing little by little the gas pressure but keeping the gauge on 0. After twelve hours we closed the kiln completely and started increasing the pressure up to 1,5. We had a lot of smoke in the first stage of the firing because of the design of the burners which doesn’t allow a primary air control, so that they don’ t produce a good combustion unless you have a lot of pressure. When we started having colour there was no way of having an oxidizing or neutral atmosphere, the kiln doesn’t have a chimney and there isn’t enough draft, so we had all the time a flame at the spy hole. At 5 o’clock in the morning we decided to stop the firing and we had reached cone 06 only, so none of the tests melted. In order to get more temperature some adjustments should be done like adding a small chimney and designing a way of controlling the primary air intake in the burners, so that combustion is more efficient, this is very important considering that gas is quite expensive. I felt frustrated at not having been able to reach cone 4, so I brought back samples of the raw materials and the clays and I will make the tests in my workshop with my students. My personal reflections after the workshop are that the people that work with clay in Ghana are overwhelmed by the difficulties in finding the materials and covering the costs of production on one side and on the other side I think there is a certain conceptual confusion as to what type of ceramic one should create. I had the feeling that ceramists feel the need to make a clear difference between traditional pottery and art, and that traditional pots are usually considered too simple, so that artistic pots should be more complex and should reflect personal expression, should have a lot of colour, and should comply with the expectations of foreign buyers. The other important aspect is that there is a lot of interest in what potters do in other countries but practically very little access to information. I had taken with me some slides but as no projector was available it was impossible to use them as a starting point for conceptual discussion. I tried to emphasize the fact that for western ceramicists African traditional pottery is a source of inspiration and that maybe it would be worthwhile to try to work with what is available and find a personal expression within the local limitations and I thought that the sculptural work Francis presented at the Alliance Française corresponded exactly to that concept. Besides a majority of the participants seemed more interested in sculpture than in functional ware so glazes shouldn’t be such a problem. For further research I would suggest working with different clays and natural pigments in order to develop several bodies, for low and middle range firing. I think that a line of slips could be developed using the same materials . I also suggested trying a self setting body which is a mixture of clay and cement that can be modeled and doesn’t need to be fired and can be painted in different ways and is very convenient for large scale work. For functional ware I will make the tests and I think a white glaze can be developed for cone 4 and natural pigments could be used for decoration. On the esthetic side it would be interesting to open discussion, using slides or magazines, on different ways of dealing with clay in the work of contemporary artists. — Gigliola Caneschi

This workshop was a continuation of the ceramic furniture workshop started in August 2002. Aba and Sammy continued where the last one left off with the help of Jennifer Robinson (France), Helen Graham (France), Gigliola Caneschi (Venezuala) and Francis Boeteng (Ghana). Ghanaians attending ranged from a ceramic student to professional potters, teachers and the retired head of a university ceramics department. As usual two days is not enough time to fully develop the theme, but interest was high and several of the participants returned on their own time to complete work. Workshop dynamics differ for many reasons. This time most of the samples were wheel thrown as opposed to August when everything was hand built. What stayed the same was that people worked in small groups to complete a sample and the results are exciting. In August Barbara Allen (USA) will come back to work with Aba and the Ghanaian potters. These workshops will continue as long as there’s an interest, and judging from past participation that will be for a long time. One measure of the workshops success was shown by the neighborhood workmen. Carpenters, masons and other laborers would drift in and start working with us on their breaks. And some neighbors were curious enough to wander in during the kiln firing.Not unusual in itself, but we fired in the night until 5 a.m. We also conducted a few informal classes with the neighborhood children. They continue to be enthusiastic. Source: https://culturalcollaborative.org/ws-furniture2.php

I will miss Ghana and all of the incredible people I have met there who were so welcoming and friendly beyond compare. A special thanks to Francis Boateng for making my trip so exceptional Francis Boateng – a fun, upbeat, politically-minded, and talented artist who has great hopes and dreams for Ghana. I was lucky to have Francis along with me during most of my travel from Accra, and he introduced me to potters and friends all over the country. He taught me so much about Ghana beyond pottery and art. I will miss our conversations on just about everything.

I started the morning by visiting a couple artists near Nungua, a town outside Accra. Francis Boateng is a Ghanaian sculptor who has worked on several monuments and commissions in Ghana, Europe, and other countries in Africa. Today I was able to tour his studio to see his mold and casting equipment and some remnants of past works. He has also traveled with me to all parts of Ghana, sharing his knowledge of art and ceramics.

It all started in the summer of 2001, when I met Francis Boateng, a Ghanaian sculptor, at a potters’ fair in northern France. He and another Ghanaian were the guests of honour. Francis was demonstrating modelling people for the public. I was demonstrating modelling animals. We admired one another’s work. Francis said “If there are any potters who would like to come to Ghana to see how it is done there…” Well – yes, there was me. I had been to Africa before, cycle touring with my partner and our small daughter, but not to work. Working with the same people day after day you get to know them in a way you never do as a tourist – who is always just passing through. I went to Ghana for almost two months at the beginning of 2003. At the end of my stay Francis and I staged a joint exhibition at the Alliance Française in the capital Accra. I found the Ghanaians to be a very open and friendly people. Francis and his family, his friends, and his workers all made me feel very welcome, and did their utmost to make my stay enjoyable. My time there was enriching in many ways. As well as working I also met other people, some of whom I am still in regular contact with. I discovered a completely different world of work to the one I’m used to here in France. I work alone. Francis can easily employ people to do the work that he doesn’t need to do personally. The corruption is apparently less than in some other African countries, but it is all pervasive. To succeed you have to “know how to talk” as it is called. The right palms have to be greased, and by the right amount – or things don’t run to plan… It makes it very difficult for Ghanaians to make headway in the world! As well as my work for the exhibition I also joined in on a ceramic furniture workshop being run at Aba House while I was there. Aba is an American woman who runs Cross Cultural Collaborative, an organisation that runs cross cultural art related workshops and exchanges. I also did most of the modelling of my pieces for the exhibition at Aba House. Francis made some ceramics pieces, but also bronze and brass figures for the exhibition. I was working at his workshop the day he was casting some of his bronzes, and it was fascinating to see his home made fashion of doing it. He was rightly proud of being the only Ghanaian that casts his own bronzes. Source: https://www.jen-robinson.com/ghana_working.html

For our joint exhibition at the end of our collaboration Francis made ceramic pieces, and also bronze and brass figures. First he made a basic original in clay. From this he made a two part plaster mould. He then pressed sheets of wax into the two halves, and fused the resulting shells together to make a hollow wax version of his original. Wax details were then added until he had the model he wanted. This was cast in a plaster mould, which was placed upside down in his pottery kiln and heated, so that the wax melts and flows out, leaving a hole inside the plaster in the shape of his sculpture. I was at his workshop glazing some of my work one day when he and his workers were casting bronzes. He was proud of being the only Ghanaian sculptor who cast his own bronzes, and rightly so. He is full of ingenious ideas for how to find a way round the problems of doing it under local conditions. The raw material for the bronze came from the boat scrap yard at Tema docks. Broken boat propellers, marine fittings, and anything else in bronze, brass & copper can be put aside for him. The copper wire I used for the legs and necks of my birds was sections of heavy duty electrical cable that came from the same source (it took a few of us a while to strip, untwist and straighten the wires). The wax he uses for the moulds is beeswax, as it resists the local temperature. His plaster moulds, cast inside adjustable size sections of oil drum, are full of bits of broken pottery. This helps the mould to not split when the molten bronze is poured into it at very high temperature. Because of the risk of the moulds splitting they dug holes in the dirt courtyard of his workshop compound, and the moulds were semi buried in these holes to hold them firm. If a mould splits there is only a fine sliver of bronze that escapes into the crack – which can easily be removed afterwards. After cooling for a while the moulds were dug out. They were still hot, so one way of lifting them out of the hole is to protect yourself from the heat by putting an old pair of jeans on your arms as “gloves”. The moulds were then broken open to reveal the bronze figure, which was covered in remnants of the plaster. The piece then had to be trimmed, cleaned, and polished. Source: https://www.jen-robinson.com/ghana_bronze_a.html