My teapots are not targeted toward one gender or the other.  I design my teapots so that both woman and men will find my teapots appealing and comfortable to hold. But men searching for a teapot to purchase are sometimes restricted by a selection that is biased toward more feminine teapots.  This becomes even more problematic when men shop for a covering to keep liquid in a teapot warm ... or what the refined species refers to as a Tea Cozy. I mean, the name just doesn't cut it with men. Picture this: A big man wearing jeans and a work shirt stained with oil and paint walks into a tea room.  He is visibly uncomfortable walking through the room full of well-dressed woman all in white and colorfully print dresses.  He walks up to the counter. Deep, big voice, "Do you have any Cozies?"  See the problem? Well, this was solved by my friend Annilese Pitt, owner and designer at Thistledown Cozies.  She designed the HOB.  As she explained to me ...

I was exposed to Shino glazes in January, 2002 at the Fitchburg ( Massachusetts , USA ) Art Museum. Friends and fellow potters attended an opening reception of " American Shino: The Glaze of a Thousand Faces “  at the museum where I learned of Shino for the very first time.  I learned that it was a family of glazes that had been developed in Japan during the late 17 th century, but then had fallen into obscurity. In 1974, a student, Virginia Wirt, a student   at the University of Minnesota , developed a glaze formula that mirrored the Japanese Shino affect.  This formula became known as American Shino and has provided the foundation blocks for many variations of Shino used by potters today.   After attending the event, my friends and I put into motion plans to purchase a gas kiln so we could experiment with reduction gas firing and Shino glazes.  Shino itself is considered a very finicky and unpredictable glaze.  I would never boast that I...

While working in the studio, I was listening to a classical radio station and an opera began to be broadcast.  The opera was Maria Stuarda   This two act opera was written by Geatano Donizetti and is based  on Friedrich Schiller’s 1800 play Maria Stuarda   involving the doomed life of Mary, Queen of Scotland. Now to me, opera means songs that are sung in Italian or German that I cannot understand nor follow.  So I wasn't listening intently, but I was enjoying the music and voices.  While listening to the opera I began to create a teapot and thought I might record the steps that I take to make one. I was working on numerous teapots, so I distinguished this one as the Maria Stuarda Teapot. As you read, you may find a new perspective how hand-made teapots are formed before it finds itself at a gallery, store or on-line shop. Forming the body It is always good to conceptualize the finished piece before one even sits down to begin...