Hi! My name is Chanda Beck. I live in Oakland, California and work out of the Berkeley Potters Guild.

I hand make and hand paint all of my ceramic wares. Depending on what the piece calls for, I use the slipcasting process (from my own plaster molds created from wheel thrown models), handbuild the piece using slabs or throw the piece on the pottery wheel. I use stoneware or porcelain clay bodies and fire to cone 6.

The process of ceramics is extremely laborious and time consuming so I spend a lot of time at work! To create just one piece of pottery I --

*Create the piece in clay by hand-building, slipcasting or by throwing on the wheel.
*Clean up the piece when it is leatherhard or sand when it is bone dry.
*Wait for the piece to dry so it doesn't explode or crack in the kiln (which could be 1-3 weeks depending on the item and weather conditions).
*Fire the kiln the first time (which takes about two days because it needs to cool from 1915 degrees Fahrenheit slowly).
*Hand paint the bisqueware with underglaze or glaze, wax the bottom so it doesn't stick to the kiln shelf, dip the piece in a clear glaze, and wipe the bottom clean.
*Put it back in the kiln for two days to 2165 degrees Fahrenheit.
*Sand the bottom of the piece so it isn't scratchy and voila finally one piece!

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A little about me -- I started working in clay in 1998 and after getting bitten very hard by the clay bug, I earned a second degree -- a BFA in Ceramics from the California College of the Arts (and Crafts) in Oakland, CA. My first degree was received from the University of Nevada, Reno in Anthropology and Photography. I love kittens, traveling the world and the book "The Secret Life of Plants"which encouraged the housewives of the seventies to talk to their houseplants. My work is inspired by abstract depictions of nature and minimalism.