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I make pots for holding food and flowers and lately, candles. I choose to make these pots with a foundation in folk tradition. For me, this involves using many local clays and glaze materials and firing with wood. These ingredients promote surprises and keep my craft connected to the natural world.

My pots continue to change over time under the influence of pottery making traditions adopted from my friends and teachers, Will Ruggles and Douglass Rankin. Lately, several trips to Italy have inspired a figurative direction in the form of candlesticks, vases and bowls. Coupled with these experiences is a growing understanding of the relationship between my clay, glazes and wood kiln. All this and the love of making constitute my pottery today.

The clay I mix by hand is a blend of ingredients from North Carolina and Georgia. Thirty percent of the body is a local red earthenware. The nontoxic glazes, which melt at 2300 degrees, are composed primarily of local feldspar, silica, red clay, kaolin and ash from my woodstove.

The pots are fired in a two chambered kiln fueled with wood which is salvaged from burn piles at a nearby sawmill. The combination of wood flame and ash, which melts into the clay and glaze, can produce colors and surfaces reminiscent of objects found in nature. Like these objects, wood fired pots can look similar to each other but never identical. This unpredictability and variation makes every kiln load a new start.

The pots are oven and dishwasher safe. Though I have never had a problem with daily microwave use, I can’t recommend it. Do not heat the pots on an open flame or electric burner and avoid extreme temperature changes such as freezer to preheated oven. Feel free to call if you have pottery questions.

Shawn Ireland April 2008