These first eight images are of me working in my Fort Collins studio in the winter of 2006. I am putting together the Bilateral Equivancies Ewer which you can view in its completed state on its own page. These photos were taken by my good friend Scott Ackerman (a photographer obviously, but a bad ass potter in his own right.) The images of me making a pot in my studio are ©2006 by Scott Ackerman, and are used here by permission.
The Large Ewer Series has been in progress since 2003. Often I will do a number of drawings that suggest ways of assembling shapes in effective configurations as well as possible colors and textures of surfaces. These drawings may be as simple as quick studies in my sketchbooks or more formal efforts similar in scale to the projected works. On the other hand, I will sometimes start making shapes in clay and build without a preconceived composition. In those cases I rely on the visual feedback I get from the shapes for direction in the process as I build them up into space from the work surface . Overall I would say that my approach is a heuristic inquiry rather than being an algorithmic formula.
Making these bigger ewers (pouring vessels) can become an adventure in balance and engineering. These pots have to be able to hold themselves up in the wet to leather hard stage. Timing becomes critical to prevent a slumping of the shapes if too wet, or a cracking of the clay if too inadequately structured, with walls too thin, or poorly tempered. Sometimes I will add paper pulp or nylon fiber to my clay body for strength but most often the clay is merely grogged. Drying these big pots prior to bisque is best done slowly over a few days. Once the shape has fully dried the trick is to pick the damned thing up and place it into the kiln without popping off parts or bumping precariously projecting spouts and handles. Making these pots is therefore an act of faith before it is one of skill.

Image above: folding a hemispherical shape of clay around the top opening funnel of the pot to determine best fit and formal relationships to the rest of the pot.

 Image above: scoring the desired location of the addition on the funnel opening of the pot. The mating edges of each piece will then be scored vigorously and luted together with brushed on slip.
Image above: pressing a coil of clay around the fresh join to thicken and strengthen the married shapes.
Image above: transitioning and smoothing out the join with a boxwood modeling tool.
Image above: stepping back and trying a possible spout configuration on the pot. The tubular piece is simply balanced on the leather hard pot and evaluated visually, then trimmed and re-positioned as many times as necessary prior to mechanically attaching the final pieces with slip and clay.
Image above: supporting the attached spout by tying it to a rafter with strips of soft toweling to prevent it from slumping while it firms up.
Image above: Inaugural firing (May 2005) of my clamshell door, ceramic fiber, updraft, gas kiln. This kiln can fire objects up to nearly four feet in height, operates on propane, and sports three 75,000 BTU venturi burners. The pot inside is my Dusky Phenomenon Ewer just before bisquing. (View the finished pot on its own page.)

Image right: Kiln with doors almost closed. The door has been left cracked slightly during the very early preheating of the greenware.
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