Pottery Making Illustrated Articles (Simple)

Besides being adorable and practical, I had the most fun working out the match-striker design. I had a picture in my head: the perfect match striker.

When making work, I strive to highlight the beauty of art that we can hold, live with in our homes, and touch to our lips. The rituals surrounding the simple moments of everyday life are where the most meaningful connections to art can be found.

One of my favorite handbuilding projects is my ceramic casita shrine shelf. They designate a special space in your home that you can visit whenever you need to escape, meditate, or give energy to a person or idea that’s been on your mind.

Interlacing drawing with tactile handbuilding techniques in the vessels that I make allows me to participate in that ongoing conversation at my table as well as in other homes where my work is found/used.

This box design was just a starting point for me. The techniques I used in this one piece opened a variety of paths that can be translated endlessly into other pieces.

Hands can activate the story of a body. Like developing the gaze on a face, positioning the hands can take me quite a long time as I play and explore the myriad possibilities that could actuate the gesture in unique and unexpected ways.

My forms are relatively uncomplicated, and I take inspiration from everything from the proportions of paper coffee cups to estate-sale treasures.

No matter which one, writing a well-focused how-to guide will draw attention to you, your process, and your ceramics.

I love surface pattern and working with slips and oxides and am able to use these materials to get creative with the paintbrush when making my clay games.

The artists in this issue, who all focus on handbuilding as their primary forming method, did just that, and their efforts lay on the pages that follow.

Illustrated clay measuring devices.

A good citrus reamer is an indispensable kitchen tool. From making cocktails to citrusy desserts to salad dressings, my ceramic reamers are some of my most unexpected kitchen treasures.

What I came up with were these elegant facets that created a dynamic rim but also literally pointed my eye down to my decorative surface.

Raku firing consists of heating the ceramic piece to the temperature required to melt any glaze on the surface, then removing the piece from the kiln while it is still red hot and any glaze is molten.

I was initially drawn to the familiarity of the quatrefoil motif, but also fell in love with the negative spaces created when repeated shapes are laid out in a grid.

My current body of work came about when renovating a 100-year-old cottage. All the layers of paint, wallpaper, and varnish that I peeled away inspired me to create a story with age, texture, and color on my work.

I have been trying to translate drawings onto clay for over 20 years, and the reasons that make it brain-breaking for me are also the reasons that make it fulfilling.

My hope is to contribute something beautiful to society, something that will impact the human heart, drawing us out of ourselves into something greater and higher, something that can fill us with a hunger for truth, goodness, and beauty.

There is more to this life. For those of you whose career is pottery, find a hobby. For those of you whose hobby is pottery, it could be more than that.