“I hoard rejected ceramic materials and turn them into weird, perfect objects.”
 

The act of making can be approached by 'farming' or by 'gathering.’ Farmers have an idea of what they want to create and seek out the materials to make it. Gatherers begin with a certain array of materials, and what they create is based on what is available.

I collect the clays, glazes, and raw materials unwanted by other artists. Ceramic materials are essentially a conglomeration of minerals and therefore can be stored or reprocessed indefinitely— it just takes time and energy to do so. Through years of working for and alongside artists, I am able to access enough second-hand materials that I can experiment and refine them into something purposeful. I gather what is to be discarded, but I farm for beauty, interest, and functionality.

The majority of my clay originates as commercially available clay bodies that come to me as dried scraps. I typically mix several types together before reclaiming it-- a process wherein the dry clay is slaked down in water, then dehydrated on a plaster slab until it can be wedged to a uniform consistency without air bubbles. 

Many of my glazes are made from scratch using raw materials from artists who’d retired from ceramics, though often I’ll have ready-to-use commercial glazes come my way.  My favorite glazes are test batches from a ceramic supply manufacturer that were never put into production, and a whole series of satin glazes gifted by a fellow ceramicist who'd outgrown them.

I will often blend commercial glazes together or tinker with the color and texture by adding raw materials.  Because the recipes are altered largely at random - or were unknown in the first place - many of my pieces are in finite supply.  Once the materials are used up, there is no way to exactly recreate them.

About ‘Thermotrope’: a thermotrope is an organism or object that responds to temperature difference, such as a plant that curls its leaves inward from the cold. Ceramics by definition is clay that has responded to the high heat of a kiln. By design, the minerals in clay and glaze change during firings. A piece displays positive thermotropism in that throughout the entire process of its creation, it is moving toward the firings.

731 Jones St, Berkeley, CA 94710

ctpiper@thermotrope.com