Fabiola De la Cueva
Location
Mexico
About
Fab, a Tex-Mex artist born in Mexico and relocated to Texas in 2000, discovered her passion for clay in a community studio in Austin in 2002. With a background in Computer Engineering, she balances her time between software consulting and ceramics. Fab focuses on experimentation and the search for the borderline between chaos and order.
Her ceramics research spans luster, alternative firing, and geometry. Fab has studied geometric patterns with Art of Islamic Pattern, and other instructors at the King’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts in London (remotely). She has taken workshops with multiple ceramic artists.
Fab was an invited artist for the SodaPop Residency at Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts in Maine. She has served as a volunteer coordinator for The Ceramics Congresses (hosted online by The Ceramic School), interviewing artists and moderating Q&A sessions.
Randy Brodnax's workshops inspired Fab to explore alternative firing methods with her husband, Luis Orozco. They progressed from a metal can to a downdraft-bucket-kiln and finally a metal-trashcan-downdraft-kiln. In 2024, she attended a luster workshop at Escuela Nacional de Cerámica in Mexico with Iranian masters Hamed and Mohammad Tavasolian. Fab is now instrumenting a kiln to delve deeper into this ancient technique.
Artist Statement
Downdraft Bucket Kiln
Randy Brodnax's workshops inspired Fab and her husband, Luis Orozco, to explore alternative firing methods. They progressed from a metal can to a downdraft bucket kiln, and finally to a metal trashcan downdraft kiln. In 2024, Fab attended a luster workshop at Escuela Nacional de Cerámica in Mexico with Iranian masters Hamed and Mohammad Tavasolian. Combining their engineering and ceramics expertise, Fab and Luis are now instrumenting a kiln to delve deeper into this ancient technique.
Their initial design was a large metal can with holes for airflow, which proved diicult to fire evenly. They then modeled a metal bucket downdraft kiln after Randy Brodnax’s design, achieving better temperature control and varied ferric chloride colors. The kiln reached temperatures between 750°C and 800°C.
Next, they built a metal trashcan downdraft kiln, firing over 50 paper clay tiles with 40 geometry artists. Despite the density of pieces, the kiln maintained even temperatures once the target was reached.
Currently, they are designing a new kiln with an oxygen sensor and thermocouple to control temperature and reproduce the luster results Fab observed in Mexico. They aim to showcase these results at WEDGE.