josepht's Profile

Bio

I started pottery almost ten years ago in Maine. I studied for two years with a master potter, sitting at his side, watching his hands, his movements, his breathing. I worked his clay before he threw it, I made glazes from his notes, loaded kilns, and swept floors. When it came time to finally throw on the wheel, they couldn’t get me off, I was at home forming tubes and bowls and cups.
When I asked how long it would take me to be a potter, he said, “the only difference between us is a thousand pounds of clay” I continue to learn and add to my knowledge each time I sit down at the wheel and throw my thousand pounds of clay.
I have two main influences in my life, Asian and Celtic. I love the knotting of the Celtic form, I collect Irish and Scottish music, have played in an Irish band and am learning the bagpipes. Of the Asian influence, I have spent three years in a Japanese Zen monastery, spent seven years apprenticing to a Japanese Shakuhachi grand master and learning the way of the bamboo flute, and practice Iaido a form of meditation with a Japanese sword. I have taken these two influences and tried to meld them into my pottery in the form of the knotting and Shino glazes, as well as the form and structure of each piece.
My pottery is made to be handled, to be investigated as you hold it, to be both functional and decorative and to invite the contemplative.
I have also tried to explore my more whimsical side and bring it out in my pottery, hence the dragons and ‘klayeidoscopesã’.
All my glazes are lead free, dishwasher, oven, and microwave safe. Please do not put them on an open flame.

Male, Born on April 27

Favorite Materials

Stoneware clay, Raku clay, glass, wood, silver, gold, electric kiln, thrown pottery, handbuilt