Artist's Statement

As a third-generation potter, ceramics has been very important to me all my life. I started throwing on the wheel and compounding my own glazes when I was ten years old.

For many years I worked in raku and stoneware. Then in 1989 I made my first crystalline-glazed vase, and I have used no other glazes since. I find working with these unique glazes to be absolutely captivating. Rather little control can be overtly exercised over them, so mastering the scientific and technical skills required has been a central focus of my life. The biggest challenge is their fickleness: One firing will produce absolutely beautiful crystals; the next (identical) firing, may be a big disappointment.

Crystalline glazes are a good match for my personality: I have an immense amount of energy, technical curiosity, and great patience. I enjoy constantly pushing the limits of what one can do---and I don't mind getting up in the middle of the night to tend the kiln!

Most of my shapes are "classical" both because such shapes display the glaze to best effect and also because I have the greatest affinity for those shapes. My deep feelings probably originated with all the trips our family took to various museums to look at classical ceramics. I clearly owe a great debt to those remarkable
potters.

I find the spontaneously-formed crystal patterns in the glazes to be a never ending source of delight. No two are ever the same. Like others, I frequently see recognizable designs in them--faces, animals, flowers, etc.--as one often sees in the clouds. And with only small changes in the glaze ingredients or the firing schedule, I can produce crystals of a great variety of shapes.

My intent is to create pots that fascinate and intrigue; pots that are both beautiful and interesting; pots that will bring joy into the lives of others as they bring into mine.