Throwing for Fun

When I started my ceramics career, I was building everything by hand. My background is in sculpture so my work stemmed from what I was familiar with. I built a lot of interesting teapots and crazy, heavy mugs. No two were the same!

But, as my opportunities expanded, I needed more ware and I needed it faster. Although I knew how to throw on the wheel, it wasn’t my preferred way of working. Hand building is definitely slower than throwing. So, I started to throw more and got better, faster and I started to make things in batches. Now I make mugs twelve or sixteen at a time. At first it was challenging to make them all the same but now it can get a little boring.

A couple of weeks ago I decided to throw a batch of mugs based on an idea, an inspiration and let them be different from each other. I looked at some ancient African pottery and architecture, did some drawings and started throwing. A week later I did it again and hand built half of those mugs. So far, I have two smaller batches of mugs that are different yet related. It’s been so fun!

This is the busiest time of year for me and I need to produce a lot of work. I think I’ll be throwing a bunch of pieces in this way!

I have some events coming up in December so keep an eye out for opportunities to get my newest work!!