I am intrigued by the vessel as a metaphor
for peace, plenty, wholeness; a sense of well-being and security. But also emptiness, hollowness, expectation. At this point, my vessels are simply sculptural forms, vehicles for the exploration of volume, color, surface, and movement in three dimensions. Inspiration comes from rocks and root fragments found in back arroyos, along river edges and forests, tide-tumbled fragments of coral on a beach, plant parts, geologic elements.
My Story
I grew up in Santa Fe during the 50s and remember it as a small town peopled by a lot of ordinary folks and a handful of creative and influential artists. Graduating from Colorado College in1962 with a major in art, and after a dissatisfying semester in graduate school, I joined the Peace Corps and spent three years in Peru. My introduction to pottery making was on a home-made kick wheel in the Altiplano village of Pucará between Cuzco and Puno.
Returning from Peru in 1966, I took a few semesters of ceramics at Ohio University and then struck out on my own, determined to make a living in clay. I’ve been pursuing this career since 1968, first in upstate NY and then in Santa Fe since 1980 when my family and I returned to my beloved Southwest. During my time in NY I participated in a number of juried shows and craft fairs, established wholesale accounts for my work, and served as a juror for the 1980 American Crafts Enterprises Wholesale Market at Springfield, MA.
In the early 80s, my husband, Frank Willett, and I began to collaborate in a number of ceramic adventures, principal of which was owning and managing Santa Fe Pottery, a fine craft shop on historic Guadalupe Street where we carried the work of over eighty local and regional craftspeople, mostly workers in clay. Selling Santa Fe Pottery 20 years ago gave me the freedom to pursue a career-long desire to develop my own personal work.
Frank Willett passed away in October 2022. A master potter and a fine man, he was my hero, my mentor, the love of my life. He's with me always.
My Process
Handbuilding with Slabs
A maker of containers all of my life in clay, I continue to investigate the idea of the vessel as sculpture; a vehicle for the the exploration of volume, color and surface.
Largely self-taught, I have always made pots using soft slabs as the principal method of working. Each form, closed or open, begins as a slab. In some, air is trapped in a cylinder, box, or sphere which helps the piece take shape as it is rolled, dropped, paddled, pushed, flattened or gently nudged into its final form. Complexity in the surface comes from scraps of wood, fabric, rocks, string, seed pods, bits of dried clay, pressed, rolled, scraped into, pushed out from the inside and drawn on.
Using terra sigillata, ceramic stains and oxides to enhance surface and form, I follow up with firing my pieces at low temperatures in aluminum foil saggars into which are introduced all sorts of combustible materials that touch the surface of the pots with their fumes as they are fired. I take great delight in this method of surface decoration and firing, feeling it works best with the organic nature of my work.
Saggar Firing
Using terra sigillata, ceramic stains and oxides to enhance surface and form, I follow up with firing my pieces at low temperatures in aluminum foil saggars.
The saggar firing involves placing the piece in several sheets of crinkled aluminum foil along with a variety of combustible materials, such as peanut shells, pistachio shells, weeds, banana skins, pine needles, tea bags, sawdust, excelsior, Spanish moss, etc., along with a handful of salt and copper carbonate. Thin copper wire and copper “scrubbies” wrapped around the piece create black lines and patterns. The aluminum foil is wrapped loosely around the pot, holding the combustibles close to the piece.
The “mummy” is then placed into a kiln and fired to about 1400-1600°F. After cooling, the aluminum foil, which has turned into an ash, is brushed off of the piece and the result is all of the tell-tale “fuming” that the combustibles and chemicals leave on the work. Each firing is different, unpredictable, surprising, and most of all, lots of fun. Saggar firing the work keeps me from taking it all too seriously.
Workshops
My workshops are a unique opportunity to learn about my methods of hand-building and saggar firing. Working with soft slabs, we will create open and closed forms, vessels and sculptures. My process is three-fold: 1) building the piece, 2) enhancing the surface with terra sigillata, stains and engobes, and 3) firing in aluminum foil saggars.
Because of the necessary length of time between each part of the process, the structure of the entire workshop dictates that it take place over approximately a two-week period, split into three segments. This time schedule allows for:
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Making and drying of the piece(s), the application of terra sigillata to the bone dry work, and the first bisque firing.
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The application of engobes and oxides is followed by a second bisque firing.
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Wrapping the pieces in aluminum foil with combustibles and the saggar firing.
My workshops are held at my studio in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Workshops can include any one of the segments or all three. Please use the contact form to indicate your interest. Scheduling will be flexible, depending on the number of students.
Interested in a workshop? Send me a message.