[ GALLERY ]
On View In The Islands
Infinite
possibilities
WHILE excavating his backyard in Pauoa Valley to build a wall, ceramicist Cory Lum found a treasure. It wasn't gold or jewels or Hawaiian artifacts. Rather, this passionate potter discovered clay. Right in the middle of Honolulu.
"It's a beautiful black clay I found 25 feet under the ground," he says, the wonder still evident in his voice. Lum took as much of his find as he could manage, a hefty 50 pounds.
"If I need more, I know where to find it," he says, only half joking.
The black dots on Cory Lum's carbon trap shino bowl above were created during firing. "You can fire eight or 10 kilns with hundreds of pieces and get just one" to turn out like it, Lum says. Inset. a Pauoa clay bowl by Lum. Both pieces are five inches in diameter.
Lum calls the clay "virgin clay," meaning it's almost completely unblemished by sediment. Lum tested the clay himself in a long process in which he fired the clay at a temperature of 2300 degrees to measure its purity. He says when the Pauoa Valley clay is fired unglazed, it "turns amazingly black with a silvery haze" and almost as hard as a rock.
Some of Lum's Pauoa Valley clay pieces are on display, along with the work of Joel Park, in a show titled "Taste of Clay" at Soul Lenz Gallery, 186 N. King St. on the second floor. The show runs through Sept. 30.
Lum says when he was introduced to ceramics four years ago in a class with Hawaii Potters Guild, he "couldn't do one thing." Since then, it's developed into a passion.
Lum says the process of ceramics -- the clay, the firing, the glazing --has a variability that got him hooked. Just as in his photography profession, there are countless factors that affect the outcome of his pieces.
"There are infinite outcomes," he says. "You could spend a lifetime exploring clay, a lifetime on firing, a lifetime on glazing. I don't have enough lifetimes. The possibilities are infinite in this medium."
Soul Lenz Gallery is open 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 6 to 9 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays or by appointment. Call 225-1947 for more information.
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