Dry Etched Series

In 1984 I was commissioned by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston to make a piece for their permanent collection. Even though I was known for my carving and burnishing, the curator wanted a piece that was burnished all over and larger than anything I had ever made before. Of course I said yes. So I embarked on a journey throwing bigger forms and stone-burnishing the whole thing. In order to burnish the surface of the whole pot without scratching, nicking or “dinging” the surface, everything needed to be working perfectly. I had to wear white cotton gloves with towels in my lap to support the piece. I would paint 5 to 8 coats of the watery slip on the bone-dry piece, rub the whole surface with a tiny amount of lemon oil and then burnish with the stone. As the particles in the slip align under the pressure and movement of the stone, they start to reflect light and shine. 

The dry-etched part of this series started when I accidentally nicked the surface of a bowl with a fingernail and there was this big white ding on a totally red backdrop. Once again, certain conditions  led to a new series of work. These pieces needed a spectacular firing in order to maintain the contrast of the clay body, the terra sigillata and the smoke. I made these pieces for myself because they were so labor intensive and expensive, that I thought I would never sell a single one. It’s amazing how our beliefs limit us. It was a very tough period of my life; I was depressed, but these pieces gave expression to something deeper. 

This is when I took my sabbatical to Ireland. I sold two of these pieces just before I left.