Methods

I’ve been making pottery for many years now and like anything you’ve spent years doing, I’ve become quite entrenched in my method of making. The character of my pots in large part comes from my way of carving the designs and motifs on my hand thrown pottery.

After my forced rest from clay work this summer I had to reassess my method of making and find ways to reduce the amount of carving I had in my pottery.  Immensely frustrating to begin with,  eventually I found I could add designs and motifs in different ways to the clay surface. I  broke down each motif into smaller elements.  I used my carving time to create hand carved lino stamps to impress into the clay surface while freshly thrown. The color on these pots comes from a different layering of underglazes and glazes too. I think the spirit of my work is the same, the result is different.

Building stock for this show was a dance between throwing and carving for a bit and then switching to the new method.  I’m quite smitten with making these new pots. It’s brought back some play to the act of making pots. Many of these are coming along to the show,  along with many in the traditional method and style I’m known for.  I do hope you all like them.