Artisanal Making

My work is made  with my hands in it and on it at almost every stage. I grind some of the materials myself for my clay body in a hammer mill and also buy a diverse variety of dry powdered clays mostly in 50 pound bags. I slowly mix the blend of dry materials into the right amount of water in my clay mixer and make 300 pound batches of both my stoneware and stoneware and flameware clay. The clay bodies have incrementally evolved and changed from experience and availability of materials. My clay mixer is a beloved 45 year old Soldner mixer that has mixed so much clay over the years that the steel bar that is supposed to scrape the clay off of the outer wall of the mixer has worn away from the wall and needs an new strip welded on it. These mixers are unique in that the whole outer ring rotates to mix the clay.

After the clay is made, it is bagged in heavy plastic and aged which makes it more plastic and easier to work with. Each piece of clay that will become a pot is wedged around 100 time in a unique motion that eliminates any air bubbles, compresses the clay and aligns the particles. I throw pots on an equally beloved Shimpo wheel that my father gave me as a 21st Birthday present. I also hand build using a slab roller. Normally I make a number of similar but unique forms at once, concentrating on making a family of ten or so casseroles, bowls, teapots, mugs or pitchers at a time. The pots often have multiple parts, bodies, lids handles and spouts and so on. The bodies and lids if any are usually trimmed on the whheel and then the handles and spouts etc. are attached after that. Then the pottery is slowly dried and then bisque fired to 1860 °F in my Olympic Wide Oval electric Kiln. This makes them sturdy but but still absorbant of the liquid glazes which are applied after the bisque firing and after applying wax resist to areas that should not be glazed such as rims for lids and bottoms of pots. The pots are glazed and loaded in a kiln for firing. The glaze firing takes about 10 hours is in a reduction fired kiln that is fired to around 2360 °F using currently propane. So the work is all made with great effort but that just describes it being a lot of work. That it is a lot of work is a fact but not what is important. The word “Artisanal” is oddly over used in our society that has little of it.

For me, Artisanal means work that is done with care, skill and experience – with the intent to add a richer dimension to our lives. I hope my work does this as a handcrafted visual object, by encouraging the enjoyment of food and friends, and by connecting us to a rich ceramic and culinary heritage.