About Susan
Susan first studied pottery at Earlham College in Indiana with Mitsuo Kakutani, a Japanese artist. Her fascination with functional pots led her to continue training and working as a studio assistant. In 1985 she received her Master’s of Fine Arts in ceramics from LSU studying with Joe Bova and Linda Arbuckle.
Over the next 10 years, she continued to make pots, while starting a family and making several cross country moves. After settling in SC, Susan rebuilt her studio and taught classes. In 1999, she was granted an award from the SC Arts Commission and she established an innovative studio, teaching center and gallery in downtown Charleston. The business was devoted to supporting ceramic art and building a clay community and remained as a vital clay center in Charleston for 20 years.
Susan has been very involved with the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts, the largest such arts organization with over 6000 members worldwide. She served on the board and then as President of NCECA from 2000-06, the first studio potter to serve in that position. She is now recognized as a Fellow of the Council.
Susan has taught in many capacities including Penland, Arrowmont Craft School, college and museum programs, and many workshops. Her work has been exhibited internationally including the Shiwan Museum in China, the La Grange Museum, Georgia, and many private collections. Recognized for her gestural grace in form and rich glaze surfaces, her work has been published in both books and magazines - Ceramic Design Book, 500 Teapots, High Fire Glazes and more.
In 2005, Susan moved back to her home state of North Carolina and built a private studio. There she helped to found FRANK gallery, an arts collective designed to support the arts in Chapel Hill, and she continues to make both pottery and sculpture.
About my work
“Porcelain - it is as pure as jade and it rings like a bell.” (Jindezhen, China, 1000 years of Porcelain)
I work with porcelain. Once fired, it becomes such a luscious dense material that I find infinitely intriguing - dense, bright, and alluring when translucent.
I have been making pots for over 40 years. The functionality of the craft first totally enchanted me. But now, for much of my work, and for many of us, we are making pots that are most often not used, save for their enticing ‘aesthetic’ function. My work is no longer just about utility, they are a wider range of ideas. But I always strive to make beautiful pots, however they may be used or be enjoyed.
And this raises the bar quite high. I make many forms, using both the wheel and hand building. I love to make cups that perfectly fit both the hand and the lip. I think bowls can serve well or simply delight from where they sit. My traditional thrown vessels and vases are simple in form and wonderfully rich in glazing opportunities. The most complicated forms are the gestural and dancing teapots and highly altered and sculpted vase forms.
I have a passion for glazes, they can do so much to enhance a pot (or just as easily to ruin one). I work to enhance the movement of my work with luminous flowing crystal surfaces or embellish the pots with rich glaze color and surfaces.
After so many years exploring this fascination with form and surface, I look back and see that my work is still based on my very earliest training. I learned to draw and then ‘to see’, I later learned to work with clay. I was influenced by the study of calligraphy and art through my uncle, a renowned design artist. My mind and eye go first to the quality of line and design of form.
About the process
I work almost exclusively with porcelain and fire in a gas reduction kiln to cone 11. The smaller thrown pots are all grolleg porcelain and the larger sculptural pieces have about 15% white stoneware added to avoid warpage at that very high temperature. I throw many parts and combine them with hand-building in the more sculptural pieces. I like clean lines and bold forms, which means these pieces are very demanding and very time intensive. There is a great deal of care in the making process and finish work. I use many varied scrapers and rib tools, almost like carving the forms to get the detail and refinement of form.
I make a wide variety of glazes with rich surfaces and colors to suit different bodies of work. There are probably too many glazes, but I am seduced by the beauty and potential of some and I always keep many glaze ideas moving forward. Copper reds are gorgeous and sexy and timeless, but only right for some forms and ideas. Layering of glazes promotes microcrystalline effects in both the matt and gloss glazes. Most often, the glazes are developed as the forms evolve. There are also times when I find a great glaze result that happens by chance on a lucky pot. Then I may make new forms that are suited to explore that new glaze surface. The glazes are affected by every detail of the process, the thickness, the application of layers, and the firing, as much as by the formula.
I teach workshops about porcelain, throwing, glazes and process.
