Details
| First Name | Doug |
| Last Name | Hively |
| Nickname | doug.hively |
My Ceramics
| In the studio I like to do | Handbuilding, Throwing on the Wheel, Slip casting, Everything to do with Ceramics |
| Pottery Wheel | Thomas Stuart, leach treadle wheel |
| Clay body | Stoneware, Porcelain |
| Clay Brand | B-mix, WSO stoneware |
| Kiln Type | Electric Kiln, Gas Kiln, Raku Kiln, Pit firing |
| Kiln Atmosphere | Reduction Atmosphere, Oxidation Atmosphere |
| Temperature | 1500-1800 |
| Glaze | ^6 commercial coyote clay glazes self mixed raku glazes |
About Me
| Your pronoun | his |
| Introduction | My name is Doug Hively. I opened my first studio in 1977 in Warsaw Indiana. I moved to Oregon in 1978 and worked there as a full time production potter until 2005. I made pots by throwing, handbuilding, Ram pressing and slip casting. I fired ^10 reduction and some Raku. I currently have gotten back into clay and am focusing on Raku and primitive firing techniques. |
| What I Love about Ceramics | There is always a challenge, always something new to learn |
| How I started with ceramics | I started in college, auditing pottery classes. After graduation a ceramics instructor was needed at the college I had just graduated from so for 1 1/2 years I taught pottery there. From there I opened my first studio in Warsaw Indiana and shortly after that I moved to Oregon. While in Oregon my studio grew from a small 10 x 15 shed to a 5,000 square foot studio where I threw, handbuilt, Ram pressed, slip cast, had a small ceramic supply business and small gallery. I wholesaled my work from the mid 80’s until 2005 when I closed my studio and moved to Tucson AZ. I’ve lived in AZ for 17 years, in 2017 I began throwing pots again for a local ceramics artist looking for a production potter to throw pots for her Raku installations. In 2021 I began making 2 large dinnerware sets for 2 of my daughters and in the process I became involved with the Tucson Clay Co-op as a kiln loader and from there have progressed back into teaching and producing my own work. In 2018 I began working in glass as a flame worker using borosilicate glass. I have a small studio at my home and my plan is to incorporate some of my glass work with my pottery. |
| What inspires me | Don Reitz, Dave Shaner Perhaps that’s an odd thing to say for inspiration but those two men did and continue to. I had the opportunity to hear a presentation at the Portland museum of art, many many years ago and to attend a workshop featuring Don Reitz. I had never met a humbler man a man in touch with the the world, nature and enjoying making for makings sake. I never met Dave Shaner but have friends who knew him well and I believe he had a similar philosophy as Don. I admire both of their work. Creating. I grew up making things and was the happiest when I was building a tree house, or creating a world of my own. With clay or glass I find making things for others to enjoy very fulfilling. Yes it has be a way to support myself and family but it’s more than that. It’s that function for others to enjoy, eating, wearing or just an item that strikes a cord in their being that I strive for. |
| What I'm working on at the moment | Since I’m working out of others studio’s I tend to make work that fits in both. Working on Raku pots and ^5-6 porcelain and the glazes and textures that I find interesting and inspiring.
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| My Artist Statement | My work from 1977-2005 was primarily functional ^10 reduction fired pieces. Totally hand thrown until the mid 1980’s when I began Ram pressing and then in the early 1990’s I added slip casting to the line. I found I enjoyed the challenge of learning new things, techniques. Figuring out how to make forms in different ways than traditional throwing or hand building. Now I’m being challenged to learn new techniques as to firing and incorporating my skills from the past and a new medium into new work. |
| My CV | I primarily sold in the Pacific NW in galleries and art fairs. I started wholesaling my work in the mid 1980’s and participated in wholesale trade shows in Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland and Seattle. My highlight of the art fair days was being selected “Best Porcelain Pottery” at the Tempe AZ festival of Art in the late 1990’s
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