Current/Recent Work

My current work is focused on slab-built utilitarian vessels, and recent work also includes large coil-built storage jars.  For many years, I’ve soda-fired almost all of my work to cone-6, but two years ago I pushed the firing temperature to a high cone-7, and I’m happy with the results.  Inspiration for the covered boxes and jars comes mostly from architecture and furniture.  Inspiration for the pitchers, cruets, and teapots comes from old industrial pouring and storage vessels for oil, gasoline, and water, but I pick and choose from details and invent my own forms.  After the glaze firing, some forms get mixed-media components such as metal and/or wood handles and closure devices. For more information on sources of inspiration and content, please read my artist’s statement and biography.

A major feature of my current work is relief pattern impressed with bisque-stamps and rollers that I make.  Forty years ago at my studio, Railroad Stoneware, in Blue Lake, California, I decided against using found objects or commercially-made stamps and pattern mats to impress pattern into my wares.  I’ve been making bisque stamps and rollers ever since.  I draw inspiration from diverse decorative traditions, adapting to suit my needs.  To learn about this process, see my handout on Making and Using Bisque Stamps and Rollers.

The most recent work is at the top of the gallery below.  Everything above the big coil jars with the cable closures is from 2019 and later, the product my studio and soda kiln here in North Carolina. Scroll down below the images for for technical information. To see images of the studio, recent soda firings, and the kiln construction, go to Studio and Soda Kiln. To find more about the glazes, go to Glazes I Use in Cone-7 Soda Firing.  Click here for a downloadable PDF of all the glaze recipes.

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All of the pots pictured above are coil- or slab-built from cone-6 or cone-10 stoneware claybodies or a blend of the two to give a claybody that matures at high cone-7, my current firing temperature.  During my career at the Appalachian Center for Craft we mixed our claybodies from commercially-available raw materials, and I favored a buff Warren Mackenzie stoneware containing fine sand.  Now I’m using stoneware claybodies from Starworks in Star, North Carolina, blending three parts Star White-6 to one part Okeewemee-10 in my pugmill to achieve a claybody that vitrifies properly at a high cone-7.  I am happy with the results.

As identified on individual images, for my first two years in North Carolina, all of my work was soda-fired to cone-6, and then starting in 2021, to a high cone-7.  The earliest work in this gallery was fired in the kilns at the Appalachian Center for Craft.  The large jars were soda-fired to cone-10, and the “Post-Industrial Reliquary” was reduction fired to cone-10 in a downdraft gas kiln. I like the look and feel of soda-fired clay, but also appreciate what the atmosphere does to certain glazes. I pick glazes with that in mind, and before glazing I apply wax-resist selectively to leave certain areas unglazed, allowing the soda to affect the bare clay. I recently started using Amaco wax resist, which is tinted green and has worked out very well.  To find more about the glazes, go to Glazes I Use in Cone-7 Soda Firing.  Click here for a downloadable PDF of all the glaze recipes.

The “Post-Industrial Reliquary,” “Canopic Jar” series, and the “Sealed Jar Triptych” are inspired by traditional vessel forms sealed shut temporarily or permanently, such as cinerary urns, time capsules, Egyptian canopic jars, ossuaries, etc.  Unlabeled covered vessels inherently carry a sense of mystery, because we are uncertain of their contents or purpose.  I like the idea of a vessel that grabs your attention with form, surface, and post-firing mixed-media additions, but leaves you guessing as to contents and purpose.

The bolts, washers, and shackles on the “Post Industrial Reliquary” are stainless steel heated to 1800°F in an electric test kiln to discolor the metal. The brass acorn nuts were patinaed with a propane torch.  On the “Canopic Jars” and the “Sealed Jar Triptych,” the lids are semi-permanently anchored in place with 900-pound-test stainless steel shark-leader cable, swaged with the correct swaging tool and compression sleeves.  In other words, in order to remove the lids on those vessels, the cables must be cut.  The red sealant on the cable ends is Plasti-Dip.

Please email me if you have questions about any of the work.