I’m constantly finding that my life informs my work with clay, and my claywork informs my life.  There’s something about working with the clay that is meditative, and allows me to think through everything going on in my life.  Occasionally I find the need to capture a “moment” in in clay, in a way that goes beyond my normal functional work.

I made the first piece on this page when my youngest was a baby, trying to capture my feelings with 4 little ones (at that time, they were 6, 5, 3 and the baby).  The piece was fired in a woodkiln, with salt and soda.  The kiln got extremely hot at the top of the kiln (where the Mommy piece was) and when we opened the kiln, we found it had cracked...  Each of the “children” had separated (cracked) away from the mom.  The “oldest” had the most pronounced separation, and the “baby” just a minor crack.  I thought that the “message” from the kiln was very appropriate, showing the way the little ones begin to separate from mom from the moment of birth on.

The second piece shows a big part of my life with little ones... story time.  It is fired Cone 6 electric, with glazes that react together an run in unexpected ways.

The last series is also based on the “Storytime” theme, showing the “Seasons of Life” as I’ve experienced them at “Storytime,” or my time for reading.  This set is also fired to Cone 6, and glazed with the Shino glaze I use on much of my functional work.