Ceramics
May your hands be full of clay and your hearts be full of imagination.
Liam Peters
❖
In middle and high school art class I created pinch pots and hand-built pieces by rolling and stacking clay coils. Later in life, I was interested in learning how to use a potter’s wheel, so in my mid-twenties I began using clay as a more serious art form. Fascinated with how a lump of dug up earth once wedged and placed at the center of a spinning wheel could create a unique one-of-a-kind yet fully functional vessel inspired and excited me. I began taking classes and eventually purchased my own wheel and kiln. The most frustrating element of mastering this process for me was learning to center the clay lump on the spinning potter’s wheel. One must use their own body weight and pressure from their hands to stabilize and center the clay lump in order for any piece to turn out level and rise up evenly.
More recently I enjoy using clay as I did in the early days, hand building—forming, shaping and sculpting clay with my hands and fingers. The pieces I have included in my ceramic gallery are examples of both pottery thrown on the wheel (various vessels and covered jars) as well as hand-built pieces (balloon lamp, bunny and and sculptured head). All of these pieces are low fire clay and glazes.