Pottery
Carol Duvall Show : Episode CDS-551 -- More Projects » On a trip to the pottery studio of Lisa Sales, Carol Duvall and her producers learned that this talented artist began creating pots, vases and bowls after her best friend suggested the two take up pottery together. Sales agreed and enrolled in a class at a local city college. Although Sales' friend never took the class, Sales did, and today she creates wonderful pottery.
Since then, Sales has taken several more pottery classes and has developed a pottery-making style of her own. To make a typical vase, she uses approximately seven pounds of new clay and takes two to four hours to complete each piece, depending upon the complexity of the design. To her, throwing pots is much like painting as it is an ethereal experience that provides satisfaction and great stress relief.
To prepare the clay, Sales employs a spiral method of kneading to remove any air pockets. As the kneaded clay is centered on a throwing wheel, Sales works it into a cone shape to allow for further symmetry and kneading. To prevent the piece from cracking during firing, Sales "opens" the clay and removes any additional air bubbles by pushing down on the center of the cone. While the final shape of a vase or other piece is always a surprise, a hallmark of her work is a thick, rounded base, an effect she achieves through the use of sculpting tools.
Sales also creates her own colors of slip and paints her vases using the mixture, and to embellish the vases, she uses an old Italian technique called "scrafito." This involves carving through the overlay of colored slip to create a design by exposing the natural clay color underneath. The result is a deeply etched surface that looks similar to wood carving.
Guests Lisa Sales
Potter
E-mail:
LMSPottery@aol.com
Also in this Episode
