Settled Mountain Jar

Wood-fired white stoneware. Wheel-thrown, carved, and altered. 7″ across and 6″ tall.

This piece was fired in a large wood kiln in Missoula, Montana, under the supervision of artist Casey Zablocki. I feel fortunate to have been included in the process—I helped to load pots and Casey’s massive sculptures into the 15-foot-long anagama kiln. I worked a couple of shifts, splitting lumber and stoking the roaring fire while wet snow fell silently on the pine trees around the clearing.

This jar went into the kiln as raw, white stoneware clay. The ash from all that split lumber was carried through the kiln by the draft of a chimney 20 feet tall, landed on the glowing hot clay, and melted into the white, gray, and green glaze you see here. The sweeping strokes of orange, red, and brown are areas of clay that was only brushed by the flame, but did not accumulate ash. These areas of orange flashing are smooth next to the softly textured ash glaze.

After being thrown as a near perfect sphere, I altered the form to have soft depressions, and carved the mountain landscape with two tree friends. The outside of the pot is also textured by my throwing lines—the lines left behind when my fingers drew the clay upward to form the shape. The ash accumulates more heavily in the valleys, creating additional depth and color.