What's the difference between earthenware, Stoneware, and Porcelain?
The difference lies in the firing.

Earthenware is fired below 2,000° F.
Example: Greenhouse clay pots, raku.

Stoneware is usually fired above 2,200° F. A majority of potters in America fire in this stoneware range.
Examples: handmade pie dishes, pitchers, bowls, spoon jars, etc.

Porcelain is fired in a kiln above 2,300° F. Porcelain clay is very smooth, has few impurities and is usually white in color . If thrown thin enough it is actually translucent.
Examples: china dishes. (Marco Polo first coined the term: Porcelain).

What is the difference between ceramics and pottery?
Ceramics is a broad term including all phases of clay use, decoration, firing, etc. Pottery is a term given to the craft of creating ceramics.

Is stoneware pottery safe to use in the microwave oven?
Yes, as long as it has no metal in it or on it.

Is it difficult learning to make pots on the wheel?
Yes! It's taken me about thirty years of throwing more than half a million pots to learn how to do what I do. The wheel throwing process is the combination of the geometry and physics of inert wet dirt with eye, hand, and foot coordination. If you would like to learn to throw pots, click here.

How fast does your potter's wheel spin?
Really fast!

What is glaze?
Glaze is simply a layer of glass on the outside of a pot. It is made up of the same chemicals (silica and feldspar) window glass is made of. Potters add chemicals to their glazes for color. When it is heated to very high temperatures, glaze melts onto the outside of a pot and becomes one with it.

How long does it take to make a pot?
It generally takes just a few minutes to throw a pot on the potters wheel. Potters have to keep going back to the pot however, to trim, bisque fire, glaze, then stoneware fire the pot. Start to finish, a pot may take anywhere from one day to weeks.

How hot does a kiln get?
A kiln (pronounced kil or kiln) gets almost six and a half times hotter than your oven at home gets when cooking a roast. Your finger would vaporize in a New York minute if you stuck it in a hot kiln. It takes about ten hours to get hot enough to fire pottery and about twenty hours to cool down before it can be touched.

When did pottery begin?
Pottery is seven to ten thousand years old. Cave children were playing in clay long before their parents found pigment to draw on walls. Lidded clay jars are credited for creating the first "permanent" civilizations. When nomads used rodent-proof jars to preserve grains for the next cultivating cycle, there was no reason to move their herds or families to seek new forage. Villages developed from there.

I heard something about lead in pottery - what's that all about?
Lead is a poison. It is used in low-fire pottery processes to make bright yellows, reds, and oranges. In the United States, potters do not use lead in clay or glazes that come into contact with food or drink.

I broke my favorite piece of pottery! Can it be fixed?
A potter cannot refire a pot and make it whole again. The only thing that will fix pottery is epoxy glue. The best solution is to glue the piece together, then contact the potter who made the piece and ask them to make a replacement.

Can I place a piece of pottery on a hot burner or directly under a broiler?
No. Thermal shock (too much heat all of a sudden) will probably crack it.

Where is your pottery sold?
My pottery is sold in galleries throughout Texas, Arizona and New Mexico. I also regularly participate in art shows around the country. For a complete listing of galleries, click here. To find out when and where my next show is, click here.