BRHpottery

BRH Pottery is a working studio shaped by the Sonoran Desert. This site is a place to share functional ceramics, documented processes, and explore the landscape that informs the work, from clay and firing to wildlife, surface, and form. Move through the site to see finished pieces, studio notes, and the systems behind how this work is made, and how those systems continue to evolve over time.

Drying Bowls

Music in the Studio

  • Artist: Grandyzer & Sinius
  • Title: Disembody
  • Genre: Ambient
  • Listen: Soundcloud.com

I primarily queue music from soundcloud.com because that's what I mostly listen to. Every now and then, I will add in music from Apple Music.

Thought I’d share how cool the clay looks as it’s drying. I always love how this looks and every single time I wish they could stay that way. But they can’t, and it’s this whole other hard process of figuring out which glaze to use, how many coats to apply, and how (or if) the glaze will run on to the kiln shelf rendering the bowl junk. Every single step in pottery is involved. Every single step is almost its own hobby. The cool thing is, going though all the steps, with a bit of time in between each step results in some pretty cool stuff. We’ll see what the next step brings.

Process Notes

These were really fun to make. My impatience got the best of me, though. I used a torch to help dry the bowls so I can start trimming them. Trimming pottery is so much easier when pieces can dry naturally. I can't explain it. When you're forcing pieces to dry to a certain point, you aren't drying it evenly. Nothing went wrong with these, but it was more difficult and took more time.