Ceramics, Pottery, Clay, Kilns and Community Studio

Logan Wannamaker

Each of my pieces has been salt, wood or saggar fired. The sheen on the pot is not always developed by glaze, but by the salts reaction to the clay body, the development of wood ash, and by the compression of an exterior slip (burnishing). I work with slips and atmospheric kilns in order to create a flashing effect, conducive to the New Mexico landscape, rich in reds, oranges, and subtle pinks and yellows. The salt, wood, and saggar kilns serve as time machines for the vitrification of the pottery. Working with a minimal amount of glaze and this type of firing enables me to recreate the natural patterns and hues of erosion and sedimentation that make the natural landscape so beautiful. I am trying to recreate in a few days what might have taken the natural world eons to create.

I am inspired by the subtle tones and formations that one takes for granted. I am trying to gather all these elements and balance them into my own canvas - a three dimensional object. In this way, someone can enjoy the natural landscape from inside their home as they would through a window. In a sense I have tried to take what is beautiful outside and embodied it into an object that belongs inside. When someone looks at my work I want them to make direct relationships to the formations of the land and tones of the sky and metallic rocks lying just outside their front door.