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       Hello, I'm Marcella Smith, Potter & Sculptor.  My pottery is very unusual and quite different then the 'average' pottery.  When I am at the art fairs and shows, I am often asked,

"How did you do that?"

That is why I decided to show you here... 

I usually buy my beautiful white stoneware clay, the basis of almost all my ceramic artworks, from Bracker's in Lawrence, www.brackers.com  a wonderful potter's supply store run by a mother and two daughters.  Infact, I got my wheel, pugger, and kiln there too!  Very helpful people there.

I usually make my larger work straight from the bag, my smaller pieces though come from my PUGGER.  I just throw all of my scrapes and such into the hopper and let her PURGGGGGGGGGG:

With that clay, I throw it on my wheel and do my thiiiiinnnnnggggggggggggg:

Yes, it is a messy job, and just think I changed my career from nursing to do this!

The next step is to let those freshly thrown pots rest and dry to a leathery stage:

After that the pots go back on the wheel to be trimmed down to the final shape.  They then are dried again, around 2 weeks, then my secret recipe terra-sig is applied (terra-sig is very fine particled slip, that takes several weeks to make from scratch, which I do, resulting in a beautifully textured surface and color unobtainable any other way), and yes, dried yet again for another couple of days:

Next is the first firing, each art piece is fired a total of two times, this first one they are fired to a low fire temp, they call it 'bisque'.  This is the pre-glaze firing, the clay is harder but still porous enough to absorb the glaze but a weaker more fragile state. 

I just purchased a $7,000, 34 cubic foot electric kiln a couple of months back, very exciting!  Below is it and also the shed that had to be built for it, yes a new 200 amp electric service, and after it dimmed the neighborhood, it got it's own transformer! haha 

There are two different ways to fire pottery, the more common, and cheaper way by gas, and the more expensive way 'electric'.  What I see that makes it worth the extra money to go the electric course is the color.  My art is my life and must be the best that can be done for my patrons.  My Patrons are very special to me.  The colors that I can get from the glazes when they are cooked in a 'oxygen rich' atmosphere obtained in an electric kiln, in my opinion makes the difference in the quality of the colors similar to that of a bicycle compared to a car!

Here's my new baby, I call him 'THOR',  he is around 60 inches tall!  Handsome fellow, isn't he? haha

Here is his little home... 16 feet long!

Well, after this first firing, the pots are then given more of my individual attention.  It takes me usually 2-3 hours to glaze each pot.  Most have 5 -10 different colors of special glazes, special attention goes to each 'drip' which is my signature, they may look random but they're not, then each color needing to dry between coats, cleaning, waxing, etc.. 

Once they are done they go back in the kiln for a high-firing ( over 2,000 degrees! ) to make the clay solid and turn the glaze into a beautiful glass coating! 

After they come out, I grind down the areas for the added gems and then attach the semi-precious stones on them and call them done.  Slides and record keeping is critical to the historical value of these pieces.

Most of my stones that you see on my art have been refined and polished by myself.  It usually takes close to 2 months to tumble and polish the stones to perfection, yet still have the 'natural' cut and look. 

The pottery that has the metallic glazes are then covered by a very expensive lacquer that actually bonds at a molecular level to the copper atoms in the glaze, I am very proud to say, my work is museum quality and their beauty should last many many years as heirlooms in your family, for generations!

Thank you for joining me on the 'How did you do that' tour, if you are interested in purchasing any of my works or would like to know where I will be next, either email me at:  fineartmarcella@kc.rr.com  or go to my webpage at:  www.marcellasmith.com !

God bless you and yours