Details

My Ceramics

In the studio I like to do	Handbuilding, Throwing on the Wheel, Sculpting
Pottery Wheel	Shimpo Whisper Lite
Clay body	Stoneware, Porcelain
Clay Brand	Laguna B-mix, Kentucky Mudworks Brown Bear
Kiln Type	Electric Kiln
Temperature	Cone 5 / 6
Glaze	Penguin, Mayco, Amaco

About Me

Introduction	I’ve been actively taking classes for about 3 years, and since I’m ADHD my last class was so social I couldn’t focus I decided it was time to set up my own studio in my walk out basement. My kiln was gifted to me and is a Skutt 181 kilnsitter from 1992, and it sits out under my large 3 car sized carport and is well protected. It’s an adventure for sure learning how to do everything myself, and hope to make many beautiful things for people I love, and for people to purchase. I’m 58, and hope to make this more of a retirement job where I might do a couple of shows a year, not necessarily to make a ton of money, or somehow become some famous artist, but just to keep somewhat active.
What I Love about Ceramics	I love that nearly everything I can imagine, I can create. I also love the magic, and somewhat of the anxiety of the glaze work I put in the kiln comes out beautiful, if not to me then typically to someone else.
How I started with ceramics	My mother, when I was a kid, probably 11 or 12 used to take Thursday evening classes at a place that did slip casting. Occasionally she’d take me along. Then that fell by the wayside as I became a teenager, then adult, wife, mom, single mom and wife again, now as an almost senior citizen with a stressful job, I needed to do something fun and found the local Recreational Department had 4 classes a year. So for about 3 years I took several classes, and realized through the last class, that I didn’t fit well into the social aspect of group classes and struck out on my own and set up my own little studio in my walkout Florida basement.
What inspires me	Everything! Flowers, sky, mountains, other folks art, even stress at work.
What I'm working on at the moment	Right now I am in a holding pattern. I don’t have a lot of room to store greenware to slowly dry, so my husband and I are reconfiguring our basement storage so I can have enough room for all my tools and implements of destruction as well as him having enough room for his wood working hobby. Also I need to replace my kiln elements (Skutt 181 kilnsitter from 1992) since it is taking longer than standard expectations to get to a Cone 5, (15+ hours) but never making it to a cone 6. Since the kiln was gifted to me, I have no knowledge of how old the elements are, or how many firings they’ve been through.
My Artist Statement	At this time, I’m more of an eclectic potter and make more one off creations, but I am working on making items that are the same, like a set of bowls, or coffee mugs.