Malia Cerámica: Creating from the origin

The earth is a true wonder of nature; shaped and given form by just a few elements — water, air and fire — much like a ceramic piece. To understand the piece, we must understand the ground from which it comes..

In Teruel, the territory I inhabit, history is written in layers. If we were to travel back to the Lower Cretaceous, we would find an unrecognisable landscape: a humid land of swamps, deltas and lush forests. There, vegetation died and settled in acidic waters, becoming trapped before it could decompose. Alongside it, clays carried by rivers were deposited in the stillness of the marshes, beginning a long relationship with organic matter.

Millions of years later, in the Upper Cretaceous, the climate shifted drastically towards aridity, turning Teruel into an erg — a sea of sand dunes. Powerful rivers swept new sands and clays that settled, under immense weight, upon that ancient vegetation. The pressure turned the plants into coal (lignite) and stained their companions, the clays, a deep and elegant grey.

Imagine an invisible line in time: below it, the Escucha Formation; above it, the Utrillas Formation. This is the genealogy of the minerals I study every day.

A laboratory as a studio

My situation is, perhaps, as extraordinary as the geology I describe. As well as being a ceramicist, I am a laboratory technician at our family business, founded by my grandfather seventy years ago and dedicated to the extraction of clays for the ceramic industry.

This inheritance allows me to look at clay in different but complementary ways: one eye on the science, analysing the chemical composition and physical behaviour of these materials, and the other on art, seeking to bring out the raw beauty of those materials, without distraction, allowing them to speak of the territory to which they belong.

It is fascinating to observe how lumps of clay, a handful of quartz or a gram of iron oxide become unique objects. My work lies in honouring that natural synergy: ensuring that the finished piece is not merely a design, but also a latent geological past brought to life through fire.

Transformation: water and fire

Most of the raw materials I use in my pieces come from the territory I inhabit. I collect, select and process each element according to the desired result or the discovery I am seeking.

The possibilities are as broad as their variations: I can submerge the clay lumps in water or grind them down to a specific particle size. I can also opt for fine sieving to remove impurities such as siderites and excess free silica, or carry out wet milling so that the iron stains the clay naturally. In this process, even the subtlest change transforms the work entirely.

The work and the research behind it

I will illustrate my process through a selection of pieces and research projects. The most fundamental aspect is the chromatic metamorphosis that takes place after firing.

As the following example shows, the image on the left reveals how the clays display vibrant tones after being milled and mixed with water. The firing process, however, transforms and subdues this palette: the range of reds becomes uniform, while the originally grey clays shift towards ochre tones.

One of the key elements in my work is iron oxide in its various forms: limonite (which transmutes into haematite after firing), pyrites and siderites. The latter are incorporated into or excluded from the process depending on the desired finish. These colourings are the direct result of mineral interaction with oxygen and the climatic environment over time.

The piece Molécula is distinguished by its singular form and material simplicity: earth and oxide alone. The secret of its colour lies in the limonite gathered from the hills of Alcaine, lands in Teruel bathed in natural oxides. Through milling and mixing with water, we obtain the pigment that, after firing, gives the piece its reddish tones.

Iron as an intrinsic colourant

Iron is often present as an intrinsic mineral in the structure of clay. This colour is the result of a geological process of prolonged exposure: when clayey mud is left exposed to the atmosphere in warm, seasonal climates — with marked periods of drought — the water recedes and allows the iron to react with oxygen.

This oxidation process is what «dyes» the clay its characteristic reddish tones. The colour, however, is not static; it is a variable that depends directly on the firing temperature. Inside the kiln, the tones evolve: from vibrant reds and oranges at lower temperatures, to deep browns, chocolates or even purples as the heat increases.

The piece Tierra Trenzada exemplifies the properties of Utrillas Formation clay subjected to oxidation. With an iron content of 4.5% and fired at high temperatures (1270 °C), it is distinguished by its singular mineralogical structure: the presence of kaolinite. This kaolinite is the principal mineral in primary clays such as kaolin, and what we perceive on the surface of this piece is a cream mottling caused by kaolin nodules that have not blended into the base clay matrix, breaking the uniformity of the red and lending it a characteristic and distinctive appearance. This quality is further accentuated by a line of contrast in pure white, made from washed sand sediment, whose meticulous extraction process I describe below.

There are many ways to draw on the extraordinary qualities of iron oxides. In this piece, the oxide is incorporated into a glaze formulation composed of its four base minerals: quartz, calcium carbonate, potassium feldspar and kaolin. Depending on the concentration and type of oxide used, the chemical interaction during firing generates the characteristic tones of this work.

The piece Antique acts as the perfect bridge between the two geological formations that define this work. The body of the piece is born from a local sedimentary clay (Escucha Formation) — the same clay that coexisted with the lignites and that, in its unfired state, displays a characteristic grey tone.

Most fascinating is its siderite content, a natural form of iron. When finely milled, it stains the clay body with dark nuances that vary according to the fire; but when kept in coarse grain, these small ‘stones’ surface during firing, melting and creating an organic, dispersed mottling.

Finally, the piece has been wrapped in white sand from the Utrillas Formation, respecting the original geological arrangement of both materials. The images show the transformation.

Sand sediment: the essence of the organic

I return to what I promised, to tell you about a discovery that defines my work: sand sediment. This material not only gives its name to one of my most personal pieces — it also lends it a unique texture and resilience.

Through the industrial washing of white sands, the clay fractions (kaolin) and the finest quartz particles are separated and collected by decantation in settling ponds. As refractory materials (silica and kaolin), they retain their tactile identity even in fire; their melting point exceeds 1300 °C, giving the surface of the piece an unalterable mineral roughness.

Hallazgo is a singular piece in which this sediment has been used as a pigment. After its application, precise incisions were made to generate a deep chromatic contrast with the natural tone of the base clay.

Returning to the origin

To return to the origin is not to go back; it is to recover the pulse of what we are. These pieces are the result of that search: an attempt to capture the memory of the earth and turn it into an object. In them, the strata and the textures are not merely technique — they are the echo of the territory I inhabit, transformed by fire and time into a geology of its own.

Project by Malia Pérez