Welcome friends and colleagues,

The past year has been one of new beginnings for me. It started nearly a year ago with the happy blessing of Tiffany’s pregnancy and Isa’s birth on November 2 . She is now 3 and half months old and it seems a bit early for me to join you in Baltimore for the show this year. I’ll miss seeing you.

The second development of 2008 was my transition into working with earthenware. I’m very excited about the new work for several reasons:

• Using green CVPS Cow Power – My electricity is generated by burning methane collected from cow poo. By lowering my firing temperature to cone 04 from cone 10, I’m using less energy as well as clean energy.
• Color – I feel like the color is stronger, although my palette is staying relatively similar. The iron red of the terra cotta clay has a warmth and richness that gives a visceral response. The color of the glazes are clean and vibrant in a way that is difficult to achieve at higher temperatures.
• Terra Sigillata – A very fine particle slip that gives a soft sheen without being glazed. It is my low temperature answer to shino glaze. I can use it as a matte surface juxtaposed to glaze, and to keep accent dots and lines from being blurred into the glaze.