About My Functional Pottery

I’m a potter in the city of Oakland, California. I’ve been working with clay for the past 25 years. My passion for clay springs from many sources – the delightful beauty of the finished works, the sheer physicality involved in turning mud into a work of art, the joy that comes from creating something that another person will use in such an intimate way in their kitchen or dining room. All these provide me with an ongoing desire to create functional ware for people to enjoy. I love knowing that I’m carrying on a tradition as old as civilization itself.

I obtained much of my training at Mendocino Community College in Ukiah, California. The teachers there, especially Doug Browe and Larry Henderson, provided me with a good, basic understanding of all aspects of working with clay and glazes. The well organized college studio taught me how to function in my own studio when the time came.

During the past 15 years, I’ve lived in Oakland and created ceramic pieces in my garage studio while pursuing my career in system design at Kaiser Health Plan. Throughout this time, I never stopped working with clay every chance I got. For many years, I participated in the Alameda County Open Studios every June. Now I have an annual Christmas party and open studio in December.

Now that I’m retired, I'm devoting much more time to ceramics. I’m constantly experimenting with new glazes and techniques. I’m especially intrigued by the interplay of multiple layers of glazes as they interact on the pot. It’s a constant challenge to discover the best ways to layer glazes on different shapes to achieve the richest effects. It's a special challenge to entice the glazes to run together without having them run down off the pot and all over the kiln shelf.

Much of my work is done on the potters wheel. It’s magic to feel the clay ball as it spins in the center of the wheel and then to watch it spread and rise into whatever shape I’m aiming for. I've loved working on the wheel ever since my first pottery class. I remember coming home covered with clay from head to foot, a huge grin across my face.