PortSheldonPottery

I love everything clay – the feel, the smell, the messiness of it! With clay I have the opportunity to create something functional and beautiful out of all that messiness.

Throwing clay objects on the potters' wheel is my preference - the feel of clay sliding through my fingers as I work is mesmerizing, a meditation.

I often manipulate or combine thrown forms, subtly moving the shapes toward asymmetry. Life is not symmetrical - not always predictable - so I incorporate some of that unpredictability in my work.

There are so many processes available to the potter. There are options for forming the clay, for decorating the surface finally the various ways that fire is applied to the ware to finalize the creative process.

Confession: most of us potters are pyromaniacs. While I use my electric kiln to bisque and do some glazing, I favor gas and wood-fired kilns.

Raku is the most exciting of these processes, as the pottery is removed from the kiln while red-hot and additional processes are used to finalize the surface decoration. Lots of fire. And a quick, though often unpredictable outcome.

The process of firing a kiln fueled by wood takes a lot longer and most potters don't remove pots from the kiln while red-hot (but some do!). Wood-fired pottery is often produced by a small community of potters persistently fueling the kiln for several days. Persistence is necessary to achieve heatwork that creates remarkable glazed surfaces from ash and earth materials.

We in the US inherited our raku and woodfire processes largely from the traditions of Japanese pottery. By engaging in these processes, my work sometimes reflects forms and functions influenced by Japanese approaches to pottery.