How I Create My Pieces

Every one of my pieces starts as a lump of clay. Functional ware is thrown on the pottery wheel, then allowed to dry overnight. The next day they are trimmed and given feet – reducing the surface contact of the piece with furniture. I cut divots in my feet so that pieces will drain water when put in the dishwasher and come out dry! From there, pieces are decorated – handles added, designs drawn and then carved on the surface, or sculptural elements are added. The pieces are then dried slowly under plastic – to prevent cracks -before being bisque fired to 1945 F. Once bisqued, pieces are hand painted with glaze (liquid glass). I make most of my own glazes, and since the pieces go through a chemical reaction in the kiln, a lot of my work looks white or a shade of green before being fired to Cone 6 (2200 F). The bottom of every piece is smoothed after the final firing to ensure that any roughness is removed.

I use many techniques to make my sculptures – too many to detail in one paragraph! If you’d like to watch me sculpt, consider following my social platforms where I post videos of my process. Typically my sculptures start in one of two ways; either as a slab formed over an armature (my whales, sea stars, and turtles) or as a pinch pot (octopuses and snails). Appendages are added either out of slabs or coils, and I use a variety of tools such as styluses, texture rollers, paint brushes, and carving tools to manipulate the clay. Armature sculptures are cut open and the armature removed when they are leather hard. The sculptures are allowed to dry for as long as possible, then bisque fired. Glazing a more intricate sculpture can take seven or more different colors and over four and a half hours to complete. Once glazed, they are fired to vitrification temp. Post firing, each type of sculpture gets a different treatment. Large scale free standing pieces have felt feet glued to the bottom so they can safely be placed on tables, others are ground down until smooth, while any that are mounted on wood go through a whole process of preparing the driftwood, measuring the length and angle of the dowel and gluing the base together.