The work is made in stages: the form is made at the wheel, then trimmed, and then often altered in some way, embellished with coils or cut out. Sometimes I use the clay in slab form, and build from piecing parts together. Working from large slabs or sheets, the clay is more like fabric to be cut out, darted, and pieced together. Hardened slabs become more like wood, and the process of making changes as the nature of the clay is altered. The building of the piece by whatever method addresses its form.

After the piece is fired once, the glazing begins. For me this is the time to find the balance in the piece. As I move into surface decoration, the work is graphic, painting a wax resist over the first glaze, and with the wax, setting the pattern and lines. I then rub off the glaze that does not have wax resist, so that all that is left is the lined pattern. Sometimes I have to wait until the last step, which is surrounding the waxed lines with color, laying down glazes next to each other, or on top of each other, to see that the piece has been transformed. Depth has been created through the juxtaposition of color and line.

I fire my work in a gas kiln to cone 10, or approximately 2300 degrees. The atmosphere of the kiln changes from one firing to the next depending on the chemistry of the glazes inside, and on the conditions of the firing. The weather, the wind, the barometric pressure will impact the results of the kiln by affecting the draw of the kiln. Because I work with so many glazes, frequently up to 10 on a single piece, there is a certain amount of risk involved in the outcome.

Making the glazes from raw materials is like cooking: following recipes and changing them according to what you are looking for. It is a world unto itself with limitless possibilities. Testing a single glaze will yield vastly different results depending on what clay body is used, where the test is in the kiln, and how the kiln is fired. I love that there is an element of surprise in the final work, a sense that each piece is a happening. The clay has responded to touch, the heat of the firings, and to the chemistry of the kiln, even to the weather, to become the mug you drink from in the morning, or the urn which sits on the mantle.