Wood Fired Pots From Clark, Murphy, Franke Show at AKAR Gallery

I'm a potter who likes to look at pots and I look at a lot of pots in the 'flesh', in books, on the internet, where ever I can find them. I've been a potter for 28 years and I have always found that I get a lot of excitement and inspiraton from looking at and expiriencing other peoples pots.

In my artist's statement I describe myself as a pot fondler. You can see my own work here http://www.mypots.com/

I was looking at these wonderful pots by Bede Clark and Dan Murphy from the current exhbition at the AKAR gallery (http://www.akardesign.com/) and thought it might be nice to share these with some other people.

The two platters with the folded over lip are by Bede Clark. I think the colors, the surface effects, the fall of the ash, the undulation of the form a just fantastic.
This wonderful jar and the medicine cups are by Dan Murphy

The medicine cups, I think are fired in a process called "Reduction cooling", which is a technique they practice at Utah State University where he is Assistant Professor.

The kiln is fired off and fired down, in reduction. What happens is that you get a lot of ash deposited on the pots at temperatures too low to melt. This leaves a very rich crusty surface on the pots.

Post firing, they grind away the ash on the surface to reveal these wonderful textures and colors.

I think they're really rich and beautiful.

Swing on over to the Akar Gallery and have a look at the whole show.

It's a terrific gallery that shows terrific work.