plates....and other things

I did a series of plates, that are handbuilt, with ripped areas of clay as a guide for placing texture. These were a lot of fun. I need to go back to making these. When I have more time.


The plate at the top has reflections that are not in the glaze.

I am not sure these forms relate to each other. I purchased some doll heads on ebay, and they survived the charcoal firing just fine. Used the doll arms as handles.

sculptural forms

I worked with stoneware fired in a charcoal firing.  The process of charcoal firing I learned at Pasadena City College with Philip Cornelius. This was the beginning of a series of box shapes, that remain interesting. The boxes are meant as wall pieces. All of the surface of the work is entirely the result of the firing process. I am amazed with the range of color that is possible from the clay. The process becomes a large part of resulting image of the work.

This is a piece from my grad school show. Boxes again but with the conceptual leap of objects placed inside to create an icon.
My venture into low fire, cone 05.

 Continuing on with the boxes. This one was a construction with inclusions. The form takes on a gesture of a figure. The base and the box are glazed. The porcelain tubes are charcoal fired. Another favorite.

This piece was around the same time as the work above. Though the objects on the base remind me of won tons. Some of the forms remain interesting to me.

This is perhaps jumping ahead a few years.  But the pieces moved from the pedestal to the wall.

History of my work

These cups represent a series from very

different times. I am fond of the faceted cup.

What I like is the gesture of the form, and the way the glaze breaks on the surfaces of porcelain. I throw a cylinder, form it into a square, and slice a layer of clay off the side.

The image of the red spike cup seen here was in a show. I have done the spike cups since 1986.  Another benefit of porcelain is the glaze breaks on the points of the glaze resulting in a white surface at the tip of the spike. 

You can see other things of mine in the background. The bristle of a brush is just to the left of the cup. In the background are larger coil pieces. There is a large bottle shape, cylinders and houses.

This last cup is some of my handbuilding. It is made with thin slabs of clay. It feels/sounds like a tin can. The clay makes a dull hollow sound when tapped. The Shino glaze has created a glorious luster on the cup.