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About The Pottery And Artist
About The Pottery
Most of my work is functional stoneware thrown on an
electric potter’s wheel. Some pieces are built from
slabs, or a combination of the two techniques. After a
pot is thrown or constructed, trimmed and dried, I bisque
fire it to Cone 04 in an electric kiln. This firing takes
about 12 hours. I fire the pot a final time in an
electric kiln to 2200 degrees Fahrenheit. The glaze
firing takes about 15 hours to get to top temperature,
then I fire down to 1100 degrees. The entire process of
glaze firing takes about 24 hours, then the kiln cools
naturally for about a day.
I make all my glazes by hand from ground minerals and
metal oxides. The formulas and recipes come from reading,
other potters, and my own experimentation. I test the
glazes to make sure they can be used in contact with
food.
Any potters who want more detail about my work, firing or
glazes, please feel free to contact me.
About The Artist
I started working in clay in 1990 and became a
professional potter in 1995. My love of clay was inspired
in part by the ancient nature of the art. It grew from
our ancestors’ basic needs and love of beauty, and
it still serves our needs today. When you use a pot, you
are using a piece of the earth shaped and created by a
person’s hands and vision.
Pottery is the perfect usable art form. Most of the
things we use and see every day are mass-produced. In
contrast, each piece of handmade pottery is unique, with
its own mix of creativity, craft, variation and
imperfection. Unlike most art forms, it can be touched
and used, not merely observed. Surface, weight and
balance are all integral to the character of each piece.
The three-dimensional nature of pottery provides a
special canvas for decoration. Clay is malleable earth
made permanent through pressure and heat, coated with
stone turned to glass. I use this transformation to show
that the past is the present, and that we are not so
different from the ancient people whose ideas and images
still speak to us today.
I have been a member of the Kentucky Craft Marketing
Program, the Cincinnati Craft Guild, the Clay Alliance of
Greater Cincinnati, and the Potter’s Council. I have
exhibited at Summer Fair in Cincinnati, the Hyde Park
Square Art Show, the Louisville Visual Arts Association
Dinnerworks exhibit, the Cincinnati Craft Guild Juried
Exhibition of Fine Craft, the Cincinnati Celtic Festival,
the Kentucky Crafted Market and other shows.
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