Making pottery may sometimes seem like a slow process, but I am always amazed that you can take something like this

and with a little time and effort turn it into something that looks like this

Pottery by
Nita Claise

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The Process

I start out by hand mixing my own clays, glazes, and slips.

Each piece is created by hand using either handbuilding, using a slab roller or a potter's wheel.

The pieces are removed from the kiln, dusted, waxed, and readied for glaze.

After the glaze dries the pieces are loaded into a second kiln for the final glaze firing. The raku firing takes only about 1 - 2 hours while the stoneware firing takes 8-12 hours to fire and a day to cool.

Pieces are then loaded into an electric bisque kiln and fired. The kiln is allowed to cool. This is about a two day process.

The pieces are then left to dry for days and sometimes weeks. Temperature, humidity, clay thickness are factors.

Glaze are applied by dipping, brushing, or spraying - depending on the what I want the result to be.