I have been busy working on new ideas this winter and spring and will have a new gallery of images coming soon.  In addition to my continuing series of tree focused landscapes I have added a new group of sculptures based on photos that I took during travels in the 1980′s       This piece is based on a photo I took of empty punts lined up in a canal in Oxford Englnad in 1983.  The second photo is of a new piece based on a photo taken in the Cottswolds in the English countryside on a foggy morning …read more

After the sculpting is done and the clay has completely dried the piece is placed in the kiln for the  cone 04 bisque firing which will heat the clay to around 2,000 degrees Farenheit.  Once cooled the now hardened bisqueware is ready to be glazed. For this particular piece I layered two separate underglazes (three coats each) down before applying  the  glaze.  When using semi transparent glazes the underglazes can alter the color and richness of the finished glaze. I used a white low-fire glaze which included small crystals that melt during firing.  I painted an additional 3 layers of …read more

For most of my pieces I start off with a 25 pound block of moist stoneware clay which I kneed  and flatten with a rolling pin. The slab thickness varies from piece to piece, but most are roughly 2 to 3 inches thick.  The slab is placed on a work board and trimmed to size.   I let the slab dry under plastic wrap for a few days until it reaches the right firmness before beginning further work.  Once the clay is ready I draw a rough sketch of the image with a ceramicist’s pick then wrap it again and …read more

    This ceramic landscape is based on a photograph that I took on an August afternoon near Tipsoo Lake on Chinook Pass in Washington State.  The weather had been nice all morning, but as I hiked with my kids from the parking lot to Tipsoo Lake the temperature dipped and a thick fog bank came swirling in through the trees.  I remember thinking at the time that I would like to try and capture the essence of the scene in a future landscape. I took a fairly direct approach to the piece staying true to the photograph, but I …read more

One of the main themes running through my work this past year was images of tree branches in late November with just a few red leaves hanging on before the next wind gust releases them from their perch.  The first piece in this series was “Tree of Life’ that I made for the Puget Sound Blood Center’s bi-annual auction.  The goal was to create a piece that represented the Blood Center in the artist’s own vision.  After a lot of thought it was this photo that I’d taken the previous year that came to mind.  The image wraps up several …read more

Thanks for stopping by the new online home of Kiln House Sculpture. This new website will feature my work, upcoming shows, news and articles for anyone wishing to learn more about how I sculpt. Be sure to check out the galleries as I’ll be adding new projects regularly.