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Paula Weiss Paula Weiss Pottery
Peoria, Arizona

Studio Description: A former New Yorker, I worked as a geologist and curator on a scientific research ship for over 25 years. Every non-ship hour was spent making pots and studying with Jane Herold, New York wood firing potter and former apprentice to Michael Cardew. I am now happily making pots full time in my Peoria, Arizona studio.

I throw on a kick wheel and fire in oxidation (earthenware) and reduction (stoneware) in an old propane fueled updraft kiln. A small portion of my work is fired in soda or wood. My pots draw influence from various earthenware traditions including medieval English pottery, colonial potters of the East Coast United States, Byzantine, Islamic, Italian and Spanish pottery. As a geologist, I frequently decorate my earthenware with a paleontological menagerie, geological cross sections and modern day Sonoran desert fauna. I tend to favor simple finger pulls and combing through slip for stoneware. Stoneware is glazed with a palette of iron rich glazes made with wood ash and local Arizona clay.

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