Suzanne Crane
Fine Stoneware
Artist's Statement
My work is inspired by the graphics and pottery of the Arts and Crafts movement, by the abstractions of flora and fauna in the 19th Century natural history book illustrations,
by fractal geometry, and by my family's interest in botany and land conservation. I explore the aesthetic tension and harmony between the natural side and the manmade by juxtaposing fossil-like
prints of natural botanical specimens with a heavily textured repeated point pattern at the rims and bases of my pieces. Though the botanical part of each piece is the most "natural", it is glazed
with a highly glosssy translucent celadon, where the "manmade" part of each piece is simpily rubbed with a red-iron oxide wash, leaving a rough, groggy surface. When glazed in my temmoku black,
the handles and rims of my pieces are often mistaken for iron, belying the actual delicacy of the stoneware.
Process
Each of my pieces begins with a walk in the mountains and woods of Central Virginia, where I gather wild plant specimens. All of my pieces are wheel-thrown,
using a buff colored stoneware clay body. After throwing, I stretch pieces from the inside using a wooden rib to create thin-walled, bulbous forms. I press plant specimens into the wet clay, then
brush a white porcelain slip over the specimen and the clay body. After the slip dries, I pull the specimen off, leaving an accurate fossil imipression which gives me a template for glazing.
I use a church-key to texture the rims and bases of my pieces, pressing one point at a time. Knobs, handles, and feet are hand pulled from stoneware. I use my own glaze recipes. The work is fired
in reduction to cone 7/8 in a 60 cubic foot sprung-arch downdraft propane gas kiln, then fired again in oxidation to cone 8 in an electric kiln.
Earlysville, VA
www.suzannecrane.com
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