THE INITIAL FORM 
The small and moderate sized vessels typically begin with a hand-built form in water-based clay. Using coils or strips of clay, I slowly build the vessel into the organic shape. These coils are added one row at a time, as I carefully join and smooth each layer. When the vessel is complete in dimension, I paddle and refine the surface using ribs, coconut shells, rice paddles, stones and assorted other materials and tools. It is typically at this point, that I begin to really “hear” what the spirit of that particular piece is to be. This process of “listening’ continues as I turn and hold the form while beginning to sketch on the clay canvas with a fine needle tool. Other vessels are created, most often, in an oil clay body or a combination of oil clay and wax. This process requires a supportive armature. The piece is built using a variety of techniques while incorporating many of the same techniques utilized when working with water-based clays. Each piece definitely has its own way of being born.

THE SCULPTING PROCESS 
When the basic sketching is complete, the tedious sculpting process slowly progresses, as I give constant attention to the variance of the moisture content. The small, irregular openings (in contrast to large closed areas lower on the piece) create an optimum condition for uneven drying and subsequent cracking. This challenge requires a dance between carving several hours and wrapping the piece in assorted, moist materials for several hours – my attempt to constantly equalize the moisture content throughout the piece and avoid cracking, or collapsing. If working in oil-based clay, the sculpting process does not require any attention to moisture content.

BURNISHING AND DRYING 
As the sculpting process develops, great attention is given to light, balance, and rhythm. After what is frequently weeks of sculpting, the final smoothing and gentle sanding is done. Some pieces are additionally burnished as many as four or five times once the clay has reached a bone-dry state. The pressure of burnishing fragile bone-dry clay requires an impeccably careful touch to prevent cracking and/or breakage. When the piece has been very slowly and completely dried it is typically fired in a kiln. Oil based clays are, of course, never fired.

MOLDING
A thick rubber mold is then made (supported by a plaster mother mold) of the original clay form (the mold being utilized to make a negative form from the positive one). This mold is then utilized over and over to produce a wax model (the new positive form) for each casting in the edition.

WAX FORM 
Each wax casting is then carefully cleaned, every opening in the original form cut again in the wax and the surface refined until it is as close as possible to the original piece. With the often hundreds of openings in my forms, this process alone is amazingly labor intensive. Adding to the challenge, the vessel or bowl form itself presents an additional surface to be considered and detailed – an entire, visible interior.