My Story
I have always been the creative type. I enjoy painting and photography, but more recently, I've been obsessed with clay. I first fell in love with clay after taking a class in 2018 at Hoi Polloi in North Boulder, Colorado. Soon after they closed down, my husband and I moved to Asheville, North Carolina to be closer to our families. There I discovered Asheville is a great place to be an artist, and found my people at The Village Potters Clay Center. I was accepted to be a student in their Independent Study and Mentoring program and an apprentice the next year. I spent two years learning and gathering new skills and getting to know different kilns and there effects with glaze and clay. It feels incredible to get my hands caked with mud and to throw or hand build a design inspired from the world around me. I let the flow of the clay on the wheel determine where I will go with the design.
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What I love most about pottery, is that alternative firing methods. Raku firing, an ancient Japanese firing method. It involves removing a piece from the kiln where its glowing hot, setting it in a can full of combustible material, setting it on fire then starving it of oxygen. Its an amazing way to fire decorative pieces. Every piece is different and amazing in its own way. I love it because it develops differently every time. The glaze choice could always be the same, but the colors of the glaze differ in result of the reduction of oxygen. Another method is horsehair raku firing. Still pulling it from the hot kiln, thick horse hairs, feathers, or sugar is burned onto the pot. This method is, of course, a different result every time because you never know the course where the hair is burning. Obvara is another branch of raku firing. This is where you dunk the hot pot into a brew of yeast and sugar and water. It creates beautiful neutral tones that remind me of tree bark. These firing methods will never cease to amaze me.
Enjoy my art.
