Functional Ceramics

Cups, bowls, plates for use and beauty. Wheel-thrown and constructed cone 6 porcelain. All pieces are glazed with non-toxic satin or gloss glaze in subtle shades/tones of white, yellow, gray and blue.

Plates and bowls are hand-built with thin sheets of porcelain impressed with textured silicone mats or upholstery fabrics. The line designs (on circuit bowls, rock stack cups and bowls) are created by a Japanese inlay technique called 'mishima' whereby fine lines are etched into the porcelain with a needle and then the lines filled with a black pigment -- any additional residue scraped away with a metal rib.

I make two types of cups: the tapered open forms are folded sheets of thin porcelain and the straight cylinders are made on the wheel then altered into off-roundness with subtle, thumbprint indents in lieu of handles.

RED CLAY LOVE

This is a body of work that I began in 2013, after decades of porcelain love (and hate!). I was invited to work at a friend's studio during the summer in New England. It's a beautiful place in the woods with a quarry. I spent my childhood making pots there and returning to the 'pottery shed' as a grown-up was a transformative experience. Since it's a rustic, shared space I had to relinquish control of my studio world. I embraced this new way with new clay - a smooth dark mid-range red earthenware. I also embraced this classic 'return to my roots' as an opportunity to introduce my drawings to my clay forms. Growing up in New England, I was surrounded by granite - meandering rock walls, rocky shores, monumental coastal breakwaters of granite slabs - and this was the first time I considered connecting my clay with that personal history. I found my porcelain mode of working leaking into my work with earthenware - my forms remained thin and fine. But the dirtiness of the clay was exhilarating for me after decades of my fussy porcelain and the earthiness of it somehow allowed a freshness and spontaneity - a relinquishing of control - that is not possible with my porcelain work.

My rock drawings began as regimented breakwater walls but soon transitioned to loosely balanced stacks and piles. I add thin washes of colored slips and etch the designs through to the smooth clay - a process which gives me a delicate, energetic line. My early handbuilt earthenware pots were similar to my porcelain ones - thin slab plates, bowls and folded cup forms. As I became more open to this new-to-me clay body I found other ways of working it - texturing, roughly pinching and coiling. And new forms happened - like chunky vases and cups and rustic bowls. My pots have become thicker, heartier and hardier - cups are getting handles (for the first time in my potting life!), edges of rims and handles are left stretched and torn. I’m adding playful blocks of color with lines and dots to certain forms while others have varied white surfaces - finished with satin glazes, terrasigilata washes and polished satin slips.

My goal as an artist had always been to 'love all parts of my process'. I have achieved that with these red clay pieces!

White Works is a collection of etched and carved porcelain vessels. All of the pieces are made round on the wheel then some are stretched and squeezed into ovals. The clay is a warm, ivory white porcelain glazed with transparent gloss glaze. The etched and carved surface patterning references 14th century Persian tile designs. When there are two distinct areas of design on the same vessel, both sides are displayed here.