clay talk

a conversation with clay, speaking with our hands

Earthenware has a unique beauty and a certain medicine that I believe the “over-developed” world is needing right now.

I never imagined I would become a potter. The fluorescent classroom, commercial clay, and electric kiln way of pottery never appealed to me. But the first time I saw this elemental way of working wild clays and sculpting with fire, I knew I wanted to learn everything I could about the craft.

While many indigenous and traditional cultures around the world have never lost the connection between the soil and their craft, there are many of us in the West that long for a less industrial and technological pottery practice.

The source of our clay is significant. When harvesting your own you understand that clay is a place with a unique personality and history.

Learning how to work with them is like any relationship; this landscape and these hands having a conversation.

The earth has a way of speaking to our human experience and helping us heal; engaging our innate moldability, capacity to repair or start anew, and slowly shaped into a vessel strong enough to carry our prayers.

Making something functional and beautiful is so satisfying.

Clay cook pots have been a source of endless fascination and research for me. They are fragile vessles made with earthen serpents, spirals layed upon spirals that after firing can brew meaning and medicines on the hearth.

I have been so privileged and inspired to learn from some amazing teachers, including Cailtin Deane of Urthen, Estabon Fire, and Lee Moquino and the wonderful folks at Owl Peak Studio in Northern New Mexico, as well as many wild clays of the pacific northwest and the fire itself.

I am a dedicated earthenware open fire potter. I appreciate many of the unique, modern approaches to transforming clay into ceramic, but am personally inspired by and carrying the methods of this humble and ancient firing method. Earthenware has a unique beauty and a certain medicine that I believe the “over-developed” world is needing right now.