All of the work shown on this page is new, made since January 2018. I was getting bored with my previous work, so it was time to make a change. I began working with underglazes, using different application techniques, including paper resist, mishima, wax resist, and sgraffito. I've always had an affinity for the clean, simple forms of mid-century modern design, so I'm working toward that aesthetic, while keeping some of the elements of classic American and British functional pottery. I have a feeling I'll be going more mid-century as I experiment more, though. I'm very excited to be working in this new direction!

In my previous work, shown at the bottom of this page, I worked with layered glazes, some pots using up to 5 different glazes. To glaze a large kiln load of pots, I needed about a dozen different glazes, each with its own distinct recipe. For this new work, I developed one great clear glaze to go over the underglazes. I've also made two other colors using the same clear base, a blue and a yellow. So now I only have to keep one recipe, and can make different colors from it, which simplifies the process a lot.

I use Standard Ceramic #365 Cone 6 Grolleg Porcelain for all of my pots. It's one of the best throwing porcelain bodies I've ever used. I can make really large pieces (45 pound planters) without it warping and cracking, yet it will still go translucent when thin. For underglazes, I use Speedball brand. Most of the colors hold up really well at cone 6, and they are quite inexpensive compared to most other brands. Their color selection isn't quite as broad as some others, but their bright colors (like the chartreuse and orange I use) are perfect, plus it's really easy to tone down the colors with a little gray if you prefer more earth tone. I can get a really nice pumpkin orange that way.

My firing schedule is all about getting the same results from all 3 of my kilns. I have an L&L T3427-D which is about 21 cubic feet, an L&L E18T-3, which is 3.7 cubic feet, and a little Paragon manual test kiln connected to an Orton digital controller. It's great to have the different sizes, in case I need to run a small batch or a set of test tiles, but they all cool at radically different rates. For cone 6 glaze firings, the big one takes about 32 hours to cool, the medium kiln takes about 16 hours, and the test kiln only takes 6 hours. Many of my glazes will look very different depending on the cooling rate, so I do a controlled cooling of 175F/hr from peak temp (2232F) down to 1450F (below 1450F the cooling rate won't affect the glazes). With the cooling cycle I get identical results from all 3 kilns because they're all firing up and down at the exact same rates . I don't fuss too much about the schedule going up, but generally shoot for the final 200 degrees to go at about 150F/hr. I tend to fire the medium kiln pretty fast, because it can handle it, but I usually just use the 'Slow Glaze' profile with the big kiln. As long as the final 200 degrees is about the same in every firing, the glazes all come out the same.