EARLY

     By the time I heard about Pewabic,  I  was ready to quit my teaching job and devote full time to working with clay.  The program at Pewabic was non degree ,which was fine because I  already had two degree.  I just wanted to learn to work with  clay. 

     Talented people from all over Metro Detroit were attracted to the vibrant atmosphere established by our teacher, Jim Powell, a recent Cranbrook graduate.  Many were practicing artists and art school graduates. I was to understand only later, how unique it was ,not only that we freely shared information with each other and collaborated on projects, but that we had full access to the pottery and its equipment for as many hours a day as we wished. Because so many people wanted to get in, students were limited to three years.  

    Our teacher ,Jim Powell who was a recent Cranbrook graduate and a talented potter  built all the kilns at the Pottery.  He decided to build a salt kiln in the courtyard and gathered everyone together on a Saturday to assist him and to observe the build. This kiln was meant to be  experimental and  small enough to be fired by an individual student or small group.  At the time, it was the only kiln of it's type in the area and to my knowledge, the only one that allowed students to learn the process of firing a reduction kiln by doing it themselves. 

    Inspired by the White Ware Panel that had been presented at that year's NCECA, with several other students I mixed up different  batches of porcelain from the recipes that had been published in Ceramics Monthly. I tried them  all  but settled on Warren McKenzie's recipe, which you will find in the Technical section on this site.  I found that  porcelain body to be relatively easy to throw and build with and continued to use it until 2017 when I closed my studio.

    Soon  I had an infant daughter to take care of and knowing that my time at the pottery would come to an end, I had already created  a workspace in my laundry room.  I did my last firing at Pewabic just before my second child was born.  

    By that time I had done enough work with porcelain to know that  I wanted to continue with it exclusively.  In my home studio I would be limited to oxidation firing ,something I knew nothing about.  Looking back, I can't believe that I ordered a whole ton of porcelain mixed to Warren McKensie's recipe when I didn't have a single oxidation glaze I could use. 

    Jim Powell had always emphasized the importance of testing and encouraged us to include tests in every firing of the gigantic kiln that was fired every week. Somehow, this gave me the confidence to think I could develop some pleasing  glazes on my own. I soon found that it was not so simple.  The knowledge I had was all based on experience with cone 10 glazes fired in reduction.

  One of the community colleges near me was firing in cone 6 oxidation, but I found the glazes disappointing and  the glaze chemistry was also too different from the cone 10 glazes that  I knew. I decided to try instead to adapt the reduction glazes I had used at Pewabic to cone 10 in oxidation.  Finally, I was able to alter a clear cone 6 recipe to work at cone 9/10 in oxidation and combing through old books  at the library,  found a white matte glaze by a British potter, Peter Lane ,that worked well.  Some Pewabic recipies, especially the saturated iron glazes, worked quite well in oxidation without any alteration. Eventually, I adapted a clear cone 6 oxidation glaze to cone 9/10. 

•   While at Pewabic, I had mastered throwing but I had  NEVER mastered  glazing. I'm  not talking about application, I mean  using a glaze to enhance a piece. Too often, I would be very pleased with my bisqued work, only to want to throw it in the trash after it came out of the glaze kiln. I simply did not know how to keep the glaze from fighting the form. Then, in my basement "studio", exploring form in porcelain and limited to only two glazes, I realized that I needed to be bold enough NOT to  decorate, to think of the glaze simply as a "finish"  and  to let the forms speak for themselves.  This was a huge breakthrough for me and the beginning of my personal style.  

I studied at Pewabic Pottery in Detroit for three years, which was all that one was allowed, because so many people wanted to take classes there at that time. Many talented people from all over the Detroit metro area were attracted to this almost forgotten historical building that was being restored and was a very stimulating and exciting place to be.

During my time at Pewabic I began outfitting a makeshift studio in my basement laundry room wedged in with the washer and dryer. I ended up working there for 4 years. 

When my daughter was 6 and my son was 4 I found a small building I could buy on a land contract very close to my home. I established my first real studio there.