Hand-Painted Bird Mug

Much as a stream tumbles, scrapes, and polishes the rocks that lie in its bed, so the wood-fired kiln, in compressed geologic time, touches and alters the pots in its belly. With the flashing of flames, the deposition of ash, and the fluxing of salt, a pot is transformed in unpredictable ways. The pot bears the story of its making on its surface to be read like history. My approach is to form vessels of daily use that have some sweetness of shape that invite touch and might please the eye, and then surrender that piece to the fire. The piece becomes a canvas upon which the fire paints. I use clay that is sensitive to the differences in atmosphere that exist within a wood fire and that show the touch of ash. I like to explore the tensions between firmness and control vs fluidity and spontaneity in my forms. Gnarly wild wood branches form the handles. Wood and rock often relate to each other in natural environments; the pots mirror, honor and celebrate that long marriage. Although, as you may suspect, wood firing is a labor intensive process, it allows heating the kiln to 2450 degrees F without the need for fossil fuels.