The Student Spotlight is shining this month on Eileen Burke! Visit our studio throughout the month of June and check out Eileen’s amazing alternative fired pots in the lobby windows! |
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Eileen Burke I walked into Sawmill Pottery on an impulse about three years ago, looking for a new hobby that would help keep my fingers limber. I had no experience, but I started learning the basics and progressed from there. The studio environment is supportive and fun. We laugh at our mistakes, commiserating with others’, remembering when we made the same ones as well. Some days I don’t get much done, socializing too much, other days, I’m so focused I don’t hear people talking to me. The movement of clay in my hands is mesmerizing, needing enough concentration that I can’t think of the worries of the day.
My focus has been on functional pottery until recently, when my interest has turned to alternative firing methods that are for decorative pieces only. I recently returned from the John Campbell Folk School in North Carolina where I spent a week learning these methods from Charlie and Linda Riggs. Firing techniques such as one and two step naked raku, ferric and naked horsehair, Obvara, and ferric chloride saggar firing all produce results that are completely unique to every pot, impossible to be duplicated.
I look forward to the days when I can get up to the studio. Now I find I schedule appointments and chores around my clay time so I can have a fun day just for me. I thank Dot and David for all their help and support, and encourage anyone to try a workshop or lesson at Sawmill. You won’t be disappointed!
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