It all started when I was three years old when my mom gave me my first box of 64-count Crayons. You know the one, with the sharpener on the back of the box. Next, along came colored pencils, markers, paints and art lessons. In junior high, I was lucky enough to learn to throw clay standing up on a kick wheel. Off to art school! I received an Associates Degree from St. Clair County Community College and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Currently I am working on my Masters degree from Central Michigan University. My career path has included the education field, health field, county government and currently I am the Marketing Director for McMorran Place in downtown Port Huron.

Many years later, I still love that crayon sharpener! It reminds me to develop, analyze and implement strategies of marketing and design in my clay work, as well as to keep current of ceramic trends, and to sharpen my skills at many levels. I have been a student potter for several years and have just launched my own website: www.redmuddcreations.com. As I grow, my spirit to create renews itself daily just as it did on that first day I used my new 64-count box of Crayons.

Thanks Mom!

Instant gratification is what it is all about! I was bitten by the Zen experience at a workshop just a few years ago. Joe Cilluffo, a former high school art teacher, gave me the confidence and taught me the skills to produce my own pieces. His workshops are the best!  Visit him at www.joeart.com.

The firing process starts with glazed bisque-fired pots at a low fire temperature of about 1700 degrees. Pots are removed from a specially

built kiln and then quickly placed in a container of combustibles. After a fire ignites, the container is closed for a post-firing reduction. Before pieces cool, they are immediately emerged into water, which completes the process. Raku pots are not watertight or food safe. Their function is in their beauty.

Several potters and friends have joined me for some interesting firings. Having 21 acres of property, space is not a problem; the more kilns the merrier. We experiment and work until late into the evening. It is amazing to see potters who make a living by selling functional pottery, come alive with this artistic process.

This has become my passion. I love taking naked bisque pots and letting the fire do it's magic by transforming the pieces into works of art. I start out with thrown pots or by slab building cylinder forms using corrugated cardboard and adding tons of texture. Sometimes I throw bottleneck vases and attach them to the top of the forms. I encase each piece in a copper scrubby; add salts, copper sulfate, dog food and leftover chicken bones to a bed of sawdust in the bottom of a 55-gallon drum. Add newspaper kindling, ignite from the bottom, and let the show begin. The next day I remove the char broiled pieces to a bucket of water and scrub with glee to find some awesome treasures. What is so fascinating to me is that I start out with a plain pot and end up with all these amazing colors from a few chemicals and banana peels!

Raku, horse hair pottery and pit firing bring me the most pleasure in creating pottery. My passion goes beyond the designing, glazing and firing of my pieces. If you want to touch, stroke or pickup my work, I have completed the artistic process.

One evening I was in a throwing frenzy! I promised to donate 50 bowls to Mid City Nutrition Soup Kitchen in Port Huron, Michigan, for their Empty Bowls Fundraiser. About the tenth bowl, I hear a "pop" and think to myself what was that? Not seeing anything out of the ordinary, I pop a beer can tab and think how odd the two sounds were alike. After several more bowls (and beverages), I hear the "pop" and I look up and see the rim explode off the last bowl I just threw! Whoa… I go and look at all the bowls and see several rims ripped to smithereens! The slope of the side of the bowl, plus the use of colored slip was just not a good combination. Moral of the story: always listen to your pots before you drink!