I was born in Santa Barbara, Calif. in 1959, and moved to the Mendocino coast area of northern California, in the redwoods, when I was 10, where I still live with my husband, dog, cats, chickens and garden.
When I was about 7 years old, my parents took a pottery class at the City College. They left my brother and I in the garage with a babysitter and some clay to play with, and said they were going to class to throw pots. That sounded like fun to me, so they came home to find that we were making pinch pots and throwing them against the wall. The next week, we got to go along to class, to find out what "throwing pots" really meant. The teacher's demo looked like magic! I decided on the spot that I wanted to learn how to do that some day.
My earliest pottery aesthetic influence was using the handthrown pottery of my parents' friends in Santa Barbara; the pottery of Oscar Bucher, Bill Neely, Beverly Sanders, Ed Schurtz, and Jack Boydston. I first learned how to wedge, center and make a rudimentary pot at Mendocino High school. I studied pottery at the College of the Redwoods Mendocino coast campus under Bob Zvolensky and Steve Larkin, beginning in 1982. After the first year, I worked as an aide, and learned to mix glazes and fire the kilns. I also studied at the R.O.P. vocational pottery class at the Mendocino Art Center under Tony Marsh. I have taken workshops or lessons from many potters, including Jack Sears, James Dahl, John Leach, Cliff Glover, Chris Cisper, Marlene Placido, Adam Field, Forrest Lesch-Middleton, Josh DeWeese, Jack Troy and Robbie Lobell. My pottery also has been influenced by the many books and magazine articles I've read, as well as the pottery of my friends.
In the early 2000's, I began experimenting with making my own glazes out of ashes from my wood stove and local silts and clays. I have studied glaze chemistry primarily through books. All the stoneware glazes I currently use have some local materials in them, usually combined with commercial rock dusts. I use a few glazes that others have invented, but most I have invented myself.
Other things I do include gardening, hiking, mushrooming, taking people out on nature walks, cooking, and most recently, writing a wild mushroom cookbook: http://www.wildmushroomcookbook.com/.
When I was about 7 years old, my parents took a pottery class at the City College. They left my brother and I in the garage with a babysitter and some clay to play with, and said they were going to class to throw pots. That sounded like fun to me, so they came home to find that we were making pinch pots and throwing them against the wall. The next week, we got to go along to class, to find out what "throwing pots" really meant. The teacher's demo looked like magic! I decided on the spot that I wanted to learn how to do that some day.
My earliest pottery aesthetic influence was using the handthrown pottery of my parents' friends in Santa Barbara; the pottery of Oscar Bucher, Bill Neely, Beverly Sanders, Ed Schurtz, and Jack Boydston. I first learned how to wedge, center and make a rudimentary pot at Mendocino High school. I studied pottery at the College of the Redwoods Mendocino coast campus under Bob Zvolensky and Steve Larkin, beginning in 1982. After the first year, I worked as an aide, and learned to mix glazes and fire the kilns. I also studied at the R.O.P. vocational pottery class at the Mendocino Art Center under Tony Marsh. I have taken workshops or lessons from many potters, including Jack Sears, James Dahl, John Leach, Cliff Glover, Chris Cisper, Marlene Placido, Adam Field, Forrest Lesch-Middleton, Josh DeWeese, Jack Troy and Robbie Lobell. My pottery also has been influenced by the many books and magazine articles I've read, as well as the pottery of my friends.
In the early 2000's, I began experimenting with making my own glazes out of ashes from my wood stove and local silts and clays. I have studied glaze chemistry primarily through books. All the stoneware glazes I currently use have some local materials in them, usually combined with commercial rock dusts. I use a few glazes that others have invented, but most I have invented myself.
Other things I do include gardening, hiking, mushrooming, taking people out on nature walks, cooking, and most recently, writing a wild mushroom cookbook: http://www.wildmushroomcookbook.com/.
