Many of the pieces made for this series use the ancient pottery technique sgraffito. This process involves covering a leather-hard piece of clay with a colored slip or underglaze; this surface coating is then selectively scratched away using a sharp tool to reveal the contrasting clay underneath. Most pieces use a red or white cone 6 stoneware body with white clay or porcelain slip and/or underglazes. Fired to cone 6.
Marbled recycled stoneware, decorated with slip and underglaze, carved and fired to cone 6 oxidation.
Made from marbled stoneware and decorated with underglazes and glaze. Fired to cone 6 oxidation.
Underglazes on white stoneware, carved, glazed, and fired to cone 6 oxidation. The platter was formed on a hump mold and measures about 12" in diameter.
White slip and velvet underglazes on recycled stoneware; carved, glazed with a transparent matte, and fired to cone 6 oxidation.
This matching set was wheelthrown, painted with black underglaze on the lower portion, then carved when leather-hard. Glazed inside and upper portion with a green glaze and clear-glazed the lower part, fired to cone 6 oxidation.
This white stoneware succulent planter was wheelthrown, decorated in underglaze, then carved while leather hard. Inside clear-glazed after bisque firing, then fired again to cone 6 oxidation. 8" diameter.
This slab-built fruit bowl was formed on a hump mold and features a wheelthrown foot. Painted with underglaze, then carved when leather hard. Bisque fired, clear-glazed, and fired to cone 6 oxidation. 10" diameter.
Small (4”) planter made from Standard 308, fired to cone 6 oxidation.
Made from marbled stoneware and formed on a slab mold.
This tiny 3" ring dish is made from red stoneware with white slip, carved and fired to cone 6 oxidation.
Slab-built fruit bowl made from marbled stoneware, with carved detail along edge. Cone 6 oxidation.
Red stoneware with white slip, carved while leather-hard and fired to cone 6 oxidation.
White slip and underglazes on Standard Stoneware 308 Brooklyn Red; carved, glazed, and fired to cone 6 oxidation.
This white stoneware planter was carved while leather hard, then dipped in a translucent purple cone 6 glaze after bisque firing. 9" diameter.
This white stoneware planter was wheelthrown, decorated with underglaze, and bisqued. The interior was clear-glazed, and then the piece was fired to cone 6 oxidation. 8" diameter.
Most of my wheelthrown pieces are made of a cone 6 white stoneware, and altered prior to firings. Because mugs and bowls are used frequently, I make sure that all of my wheelthrown pieces are hearty and able to withstand everyday use. These pieces are microwave and dishwasher safe, and like all of my functional ceramic work, represent a process that requires consideration of every centimeter of the object's surface.
If you are interested in purchasing wheelthrown work, including octopus tentacle mugs, please check out my shop. If you don't see anything you are looking for in my shop, please note that I do made-to-order pieces - just fill out this form.
Mugs, 2013. White stoneware fired to cone 6 oxidation.
I spent most of the summers in my twenties excavating trenches in Pompeii with a bunch of people from all over the place who wound up becoming close friends. Nick and his wife Julia live in England, and he had been wanting a set of these for years so that was their wedding gift.
Tumbler, 2014. Underglaze on while stoneware, glazed and fired to cone 6 oxidation.
This white stoneware succulent planter was wheelthrown, decorated in underglaze, then carved while leather hard. Inside clear-glazed after bisque firing, then fired again to cone 6 oxidation. 8" diameter.
Mugs, 2014. White stoneware, glazed and fired to cone 6 oxidation.
These white stoneware tumblers were wheelthrown, painted with underglaze on the lower portion, and carved when leather-hard. After a bisque firing, the inside and upper portions were lazed with a translucent green glaze, and the bottom portion was clear-glazed. The tumblers were fired to cone 6 oxidatuon. 4" height.
This white stoneware planter was wheelthrown, decorated with underglaze, and bisqued. The interior was clear-glazed, and then the piece was fired to cone 6 oxidation. 8" diameter.
This white stoneware planter was carved while leather hard, then dipped in a translucent purple cone 6 glaze after bisque firing. 9" diameter.
This gallery features pieces that I have made for donation to causes that I support.
These causes include:
100% of proceeds from the sale of this platter — $100 — was donated to the National Parks Foundation in February 2019 as part of an online birthday benefit.
100% of proceeds from the sale of this platter — $100 — was donated to RAICES Texas in February 2019 as part of an online birthday benefit.
100% of proceeds from the sale of this cup — $40 — was donated to Little Miss Flint/ Pack Your Back’s ongoing water drive for Flint, MI in February 2019 as part of an online birthday benefit.
100% of proceeds from the sale of this cup — $40 — was donated to Little Miss Flint/ Pack Your Back’s ongoing water drive for Flint, MI in February 2019 as part of an online birthday benefit.
100% of proceeds from the sale of this cup — $40 — was donated to Little Miss Flint/ Pack Your Back’s ongoing water drive for Flint, MI in February 2019 as part of an online birthday benefit.
100% of proceeds from the sale of this cup — $40 — was donated to Little Miss Flint/ Pack Your Back’s ongoing water drive for Flint, MI in February 2019 as part of an online birthday benefit.
The Tibbott Family Pet Burial Recovery Project (TFPBRP) was completed in 2008 for my MFA exhibition at The George Washington University. This project re-imagined the landscape of my childhood home as an archaeological excavation focusing on the analysis of the many animal graves that can be found over the property. The burial sculptures are mixed materials, with the skeletons being hand-built from porcelain.
This is a ghost Volume I, 2014. Collaboration with Scott Kirkland. I threw, altered, and carved a pot using Standard stoneware 259; Scott 3D scanned it. The vessel was never fired -- after scanning, it was slaked down, and a material sample was mounted in a book that also holds a drive with the scanned information. This volume has everything one would need to recreate the vessel, which now only exists as a ghost.
A selection of multimedia sculptural work completed before I realized just how much I enjoy making pots.
When carrying out archaeological excavation, the ways in which nature subsumes the work of humans is striking – however, this reabsorption often preserves the human tendency for order and geometry, with those factors occasionally being the only remnant of human activity. For example, a drain may be cut into a dirt floor and lined with clay. Years go by; the clay lining washes away and the structure is abandoned, so plant life takes over. In excavation, the now-destroyed structure is only apparent in the perfectly linear roots of the vegetation that grew through the abandoned area, taking the path of least resistance. City of the future is one example in a series of work that addressed the ways in which humanity might be apparent after its demise.
The handbuilt ceramic forms displayed in this sculpture were made from stoneware fired to cone 6, with paint, shoe polish, and wire additions.
Porcelain fired to cone 6 oxidation. Site-specific installation; dimensions variable. Individual elements 1” – 4”
This piece was installed at Project 4 (Washington, DC) in April 2007 as part of their ‘Specimen’ show. Over a thousand of these tiny handmade porcelain spikes were planted into the gallery’s drywall, creating the effect of plaster-born spores taking over the interior architecture.
Porcelain with acrylic paint. 12" height. Made in the image of a tiny and terrifying plastic pencil topper as part of a series intended to preserve the imagery of ephemera -- even ephemera made of materials that will hold up in the archaeological record.
White stoneware with oxides and lusters, fired to cone 6 oxidation.
This mixed media installation featured ceramic, glass, metal, wood, and plaster elements.
Created as commentary on the overrinding theme of psychedlia that was very present in art circa 2007, this wall hanging imagined an acid snack bar where each tab was sliced from the work of an artist to be ingested and experienced.
Made for the ‘Souvenir Shop’ show curated by Joanie Turbek at Art Star Craft Bazaar in Philadelphia, held in conjunction with NCECA 2010. This paint-filled ceramic object, one of a series of twelve, was designed to present the buyer with a choice: keep as a souvenir of Philly, or smash it, leaving an indelible stain. Take a piece of the city, or leave your mark – what kind of tourist do you want to be?
