Coils, slabs and wheel thrown forms are combined and finished with sculptured elements or impressions of objects like buttons, shells and seed pods. The pots decide what to be come.  Even though they start from an idea, the hypnotic process of making takes control.  I love the way the pot’s character emerges from the raw clay.

The surface of the pot is burnished when nearly dry then left raw or covered with terra sigillata when bone-dry and buffed to produce a soft shiny surface.

The pots are bisque fired to 900 C, which allows them to absorb smoke when fired overnight in a barrel filled with sawdust mixed with other materials to provide color or more rapidly using raku techniques.

Removing the pots from the ashes that remain in their smoking chamber is like opening a present left by a mysterious, magical benefactor: always a surprise that inspires the next experiment.