Creative Challenges

For those of you who are not familiar with my surface decoration process mostly everything I do happens at the leather hard stage. Unfortunately that doesn't work well when some work is very ornate and/or would be shipped in freezing climates. Traveling far distances from Hawaii and California wasn't helpful either.  So what to do!?   

I considered each person's pots and surfaces as an opportunity for creative challenges. The first question was "How the hell am I going to decorate work when I can't decorate it at leather hard?" Fortunately, my processes include decals and luster. So instead of decorating everyone's work from the wet or bisque state it worked out to respond to the glazed pot and how to still create a unique and cohesive voice from both myself and the the artist. 

Over the phone or via e-mail I was able to touch base with each potter and discuss what the best plan would be. From Marc, Pete, Holly and Liz I'll be decaling all their work where as from Joe, Ursula and Lisa I'll have an opportunity at NCC this summer to work with each artist.

Pictured above is a sampling of work that has arrived (Walker, Scherzer, and Pintz). It's a real treat to live among these pieces in my studio and to consider how each piece will be decorated and executed. Notes, sketches, and pieces of masking tape to add spontaneous ideas have been very helpful. Thank goodness for test tiles because decorating these artists pots is very intimidating!