I have been a member of Potters Place since October 2023. I like the outdoors, including hunting, fishing, hiking and running. I took my first pottery class during my senior year in high school as an elective and ended up enjoying it. Years later, my wife started taking pottery classes and when she brought her pieces home, I would grade them and tell her what could have been done better. She challenged me to take a pottery class so I could experience how difficult it can be to make “the perfect pot”. I started classes at Potters Place and realized how challenging and fun making pottery can be.

I am still in the infancy stages of pottery, still learning the basics and exploring my style. I take inspiration from nature. My creationism is fueled by animals, like a mug in the shape of an elephant or paw prints imprinted in a bowl.

My forming style is predominantly wheel thrown, where the clay dictates what shape or size piece I will make. What makes working with clay so great is, you can have an idea in your head but then the clay does something else and teaches you to go with flow and accept the output.

Centering clay has been my biggest and greatest challenge in pottery. I am still working on it

I have learned that nothing comes out the way you planned and you just have to roll with it. It usually turns out fine and can be turned into something that you are proud of and happy to display.

Mindfulness.

Creativity.

Humbling.

I did pottery!

I made this coil/slab bowl in class with Gay Calo after making many other pieces on the wheel using the traditional method of centering a ball of clay and forming a bowl from that centered lump. Gay saw that I was ready to learn a new technique for throwing a bowl. She challenged me use a slab of clay on a bat, attach a coil around the outer edge, then pull the walls up to form a bowl. At the end of the lesson I felt accomplished that I succeeded with this new technique and had a bowl that I really liked and was proud of.