Pushing the boundaries of what you think the material can do is more exciting than safely acknowledging what you perceive as the boundary of the material.

Throwing on the wheel allows me to create functional pottery. The loose precision of the throwing process is what attracts me to the material, as opposed to materials such as wood or metal. Feeling the clay adapt and change between my fingers creates a connection with every piece I make. As I center the clay I use force to dictate the clay on the wheel. In conjuncture with delicate touches to pull the walls up to create a mug suitable for coffee every morning. It’s a delicate balance of using force and using gentle touch to create a form.

Feeling the clay stretch as I create volume while it still maintains its form. There is great satisfaction in creating something physical through a medium that can collapse and buckle when pushed to its limits. 

To fire a kiln that is reliant on the atmosphere within is humbling. Wood and soda kilns rely on an atmosphere that is created through organic materials that I put in, but ultimately the kiln and materials decide the results. You can influence the work when loading the kiln and preparing the pieces to have the best potential outcome, however, the kiln will have the final say in how the work is treated. This is how I try to live my life. I’ll do the most I can to have positive actions happen but at the end of the day whatever going to happen will happen and you have to learn from that to better influence how the outcome in the future.