I worked as a geophysicist in the oil industry for sixteen years and for the State of Alaska for four years before starting my own consulting company in 1982.  I divided my time between my avocation as a potter and my vocation as a computer-oriented geophysicist until I began making pottery full-time in 1996.

My scientific background and my problem-solving experience have both proven useful in the development of my unique glaze technique and my experience fighting fires during college summers and my exposure to my father's fire research provide the working knowledge of fire which enables me to obtain such dramatic colors on my pots. I have also taken ceramics classes and workshops at the Emily Griffith Opportunity School, Front Range Community College, Anderson Ranch, and the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities in Colorado.  I am represented in fourteen galleries across the United States.

My vessels are created in the organic forms found in southwestern Native American pottery, glazed with copper matte, and fired to a crystalline finish. Attaining the dramatic colors on the vessels involves multiple steps.  After each piece is thrown, trimmed, and bisque-fired, it is sprayed with glaze and fired three times in my electric kiln before it is ready for the final color firing.  One vessel is thus fired a minimum of five times.  In the final color firing, the piece is brought to temperature in an outdoor propane kiln, then removed from the kiln and placed in a reduction chamber containing sawdust, straw, alcohol and/or other combustibles which I arrange for specific effects.  The chamber is then sealed and the vessel is left to cool until it can be removed with bare hands. The "final" firing is often done several times until either I obtain the results I desire (or the piece destructs).

c a r e *o f *r a k u *p o t t e r y

These works of art are non-functional pieces meant for display and visual enjoyment.  Raku clay is porous and should not be expected to hold water.  Since most of the colors are caused by the presence of a small amount of copper oxide in a primarily copper metal base, there is a possibility that, in time, the copper metal may oxidize and the colors of the vessel may change.  Exposing the piece to full sunlight could accelerate the process.  However, I have had pieces both in windows exposed to full sun and in well-lit rooms for nine years and have not seen any surface changes.  Due to the sensitivity of the copper-based glaze and the residual carbon on the surface, the pots should be handled only by the inside rims and the bases in order to preserve the colors. The attractive velvet-red finish is especially delicate and should not be touched, because this finish is by nature the most weakly-bonded to the vessel surface.