Join us for our regular monthly meeting! We’ll hear from our speaker, local potter Mike Van Houten of Palmetto Pottery, on alternative firing techniques, at 6:30PM. After Mike presents, we’ll break for snacks and social, before returning for any regular business.
About Mike:
Mike studied under the guidance of ceramics professor Jane Pleak while a student at Georgia Southern University. However, a different career path led him away from ceramics for several years, with him becoming involved again in 2007. Since that time, he has fallen back into ceramics with an emphasis on Raku and other alternative firing methods.
Mike is not so much concerned with formal ceramic structure, as he is with the idea of “why not”? This may explain his desire and fondness for both Raku and other alternative firing methods. Stepping away from traditional fired pottery methods allows him the freedom to try things on his own merit. Whether he is using horsehair or other organic matter, the end result can only be described as “predictable chaos”.
In his words, “As an artist, you can maintain some aspect of control (application of glaze, decoration, colors) however, you are never too sure of what the exact results just may be. This spontaneous act of heat, smoke and flame is what I find exciting, since no piece will be exactly alike.”