Why worms?
And other frequently asked questions
Why worms?
The short answer? Because I wanted to make some worms. I was creating a body of work based around detritus and forage-y things, and I wanted to make a worm. It felt right! I’ve gotten this question often enough now that I have another answer: worms and other detritivores (slugs, snails, beetles) represent new beginnings. They take things that have been cast off (leaves, twigs, scat, carrion, etc.), and turn them into fuel for the new. It feels like decomposers dwell at the convergence of life and death, representing the acceptance and repurposing of bad into good.
What kind of material is this?
When folks ask me this question, the answer is almost always “stoneware.” Stoneware is a type of clay that is extremely durable and comes in a huge variety of different colors and textures. The stoneware I typically use I have chosen for its burnt, earthy color and the higher-than-average amount of grog (pre-fired clay ground into a sand consistency). The grog makes the clay ideal for hand building using slabs and coils, since it allows the clay to adhere to itself more firmly. Because of this graininess and the color, folks often guess that my work is leather, woodburnt, or sandstone. Nope, pottery!
Is it food safe?
All of the work that is clearly intended for food use (mugs, bowls, plates, etc) are food safe unless the description specifies otherwise. I have made bowls that are meant to be decorative and are either not glazed on the inside or are coated in a non-food-safe glaze. ALL of these will be listed as such. There are also occasional “seconds” where glazes might have reacted unexpectedly to kiln temperatures and bubbled or where hairline cracks formed in the clay. This will also all be delineated in the item description and prices will be marked down accordingly.
So do you bake this in your oven at home?
Definitely not! Totally understandable confusion, though. People often compare kilns to ovens because they’re appliances that heat a closed environment, but they are quite different. The average household oven gets to about 500-550˚F. There are many types of kilns and many different methods of firing (baking) clay, but the ones I use are electric. Electric kilns usually reach a maximum temperature of about 2,000-2,400˚F. Stoneware (the clay I use) bisque fires to cone 04, which means that the temperature my clay needs to arrive at to solidify is about 1945˚F. I glaze fire my pieces to cone 5 or cone 6 depending on how I want my colors looking, which translate to about 2,100˚F and 2,300˚F respectively.