Ceramics is an ancient art.  From the very beginnings of man, clay pottery has served many roles from weighing grain for trade, storing water and for cooking. Bricks and tiles made from clay-based ceramics were durable and good for building. Man learned early to use earthenware for the necessities of life.

The oldest of ceramic artifacts date back to 28,000 BCE, though their use increased dramatically about the time man began to settle into communities centered around agriculture. There are even examples of ceramic art from these early days.

It wasn’t until the invention of the wheel in about 3,500 BCE that ceramics took on a very different look and purpose. And in about the 15th and 16th century humans able to create blast furnaces capable of great heat – up to 1,500 degrees C.

The ability to transform ceramics into vitrified vessels wasn’t possible until these high temperature kilns and furnaces. It is at this point that pottery became non-porous and glass-like. Because of the unlimited variables in handmade ceramics, no two pieces will be exact. Potters use a variety of technologies to improve their chances of replicating a favored shape or glaze application, even as the item goes into the kiln the atmosphere can create variances.

​Perhaps it is this pursuit – the one of replication – that drives many potters.