The Process
Pottery is intensely personal for me. I find working with live earth to be grounding and it makes me feel alive! I draw inspiration from dreams, the intricacies of nature, colors that make me smile, and a deep feeling that I’ve done it all before. It’s often humbling and it’s a process:
Wedging: Kneading a ball of clay to compress it, removing any air bubbles and ensuring consistent moisture content.
Throwing: Working the clay on a pottery wheel to form a piece, then setting it aside (for sometimes days) to dry to leather hard.
Trimming: Trimming the pot and bottom (creating a foot), then hand-carving the designs/patterns freehand (tricky stage for mugs as I need to find the balance between dry enough to carve cleanly yet moist enough after carving to attach a handle). Freestyle designs take longer than repetitive patterns, so what sometimes looks more carefree usually takes much longer to create as I’m designing as I go.
Though you’ll see obvious themes to my style, I never sketch or preplan individual patterns, and even the pieces with a pattern are usually one of a kind. As a testament to the never-ending quest to release my perfectionist tendencies (and they are strong, lol), my designs may not be perfectly symmetrical, but hopefully there’s no stress or expectation transferred to the clay as I let each piece flow naturally.Bisque Firing: Once the piece is bone dry, it undergoes its first firing , leaving it hardened and porous enough to apply glaze.
Glazing: For me, this is the most time-consuming as I separately “paint” (glaze) each (sometimes tiny) raised carved design segment individually, then repeat with a second coat before cleaning up any edges. If applying glaze on any larger areas, I’ll apply wax to protect the smaller parts I’ve just glazed. It’s a very time-consuming step but the one I find meditative and the most rewarding.
Glaze Firing: One last higher-temp firing (2232° and a prayer!) and we’re done!
Inside Info:
I have a sweet little Skut® kiln….
Her name is Grace.
She’s lovely!