Waiting for Cake

One of the things that Nancy said she wanted from the very first time she saw one, was Kristen Kieffer's cake plates. We ordered this from Kristen back when we were planning our vow renewal ceremony. As we got closer to our tenth anniversary, we both realized that the money we had planned to spend on the event was better used for other more practical things (lawyers, surgeons, etc).  We just celebrated our 11th anniversary, which traditionally is associated with gifts of steel. I would much rather have pottery any day of the week.

Kristen's pottery is top notch, in every way. So often potters are either mud-people, fire-people or they want to paint but are afraid of a big canvas. Kristen eschews those stereotypes, aiming straight into the heart of the traditions of decoration. Finding inspiration in everything from English silver teaware, to needlework, to gardening to wallpaper prints... Kristen manages to combine so many different cultures and aesthetics into a cohesive body of work that just begs to be used and displayed for everyone to enjoy.

More Pots From Our Collection

These two woodfired pots are from Steven Godfrey, who teaches at the University of Alaska at Anchorage.
What I love is how different his current body of work is from this old woodfired stuff. His sensibilities towards the form are still very similar (probably from the KCAI influence)... but the new work speaks volumes of time, practice and stability.

Three Pots from Chris Baskin

Chris Baskin was a grad student at Alfred while I was there as a "special student". Chris had apprenticed with Byron Temple, which in my mind, enabled him to walk on water. Having used only a few of Byron's pots, the sensibilities shared are immense.

Whenever I asked Chris if I could sit and watch him pull handles, he always made it seem like "no big deal, handles are easy, no problem"... and I struggled for another five years before I began to find my own handles. Looking back now, I see so many things in Chris' pots that I borrowed or stole outright. I doubt he has any idea of what an inspiration he was to me during that seminal period at Alfred.

Chris Baskin's website has his current work available as well as his thoughts on various firing methods, etc.
Definitely worth a read! http://chrisbaskin.com

Shots from our collection

A wonderful teabowl from Hiroshi Ogawa (who really should have a website!)

I met Hiroshi back when I was doing a show called Art in the Pearl in downtown Portland, OR.
I traded a short pitcher with a wide handle for this teabowl. He wanted a bigger tankard for his afternoon beer. To this day, I have never seen a more amazing Shino. This glaze is both iridescent and translucent. It just glows! Hiroshi woodfired all of his work in a noborigama that he wouldn't shut up about all weekend long. Turns out that his kiln cranks out some of the best pots (for some amazing potters!) in all of the Northwest. He invited me to come and fire some of my big massive platters in his kiln before I left Utah. Never happened, but I sure do wish it had!

These two I made while I was studying with John Jessamin at SUNY Cortland during the year between college and my short stay at Alfred. The shino bowl has been refired in probably eight or nine bisque firings to try to redden it up a bit. Didn't catch much carbon trapping with that shino. The tenmoku bowl is one of the very few examples of my pitiful attempts at brushwork.





I made this at Alfred ca. 1994. Thanks to the suggestion of Todd Wahlstrom, I was playing with layering slips under my high calcium - fake ash glazes. This was also the beginning of me starting to distort my bowl forms.

So where did these pots come from?

I started collecting pottery when I was at Hampshire College. At each successive school I attended (Alfred, Cornell, Utah State, etc)... I picked up pots where ever I possibly could. Some were pots from students, occasionally some came from professors, and some came from potters in the community. Some are mine, hopefully indicating the changes one goes through over time, but also the changes that come from a different studio environment. When I would do shows, I always tried to either trade or buy the best pot I could find (within price/reason).

Now I seldom do shows so there is less opportunity to pick up new pots. Last year when we had apprentices here, I picked up a few pots which I have yet to shoot new images of. I hope that when I finally get finished shooting this collection, I will have written more stories about how these pots came into my life.