Mike Sullivan, Northfield

I find clay a magical material.  I work in it for it
challenges, versatility and tactile nature and it’s ability to engage me on so many levels.  I work in both an iron rich red stoneware and porcelain.  The finished pieces often look drastically different, but their processes are similar.  I mainly throw clay on the wheel and occasionally handbuild pieces.  After creating a finished form I concentrate on the surface.  I often do sgraffito carving through an iron oxide wash on the red stoneware. I often repeat these same carvings and patterns on porcelain, but do a reverse process called mishima, where colored clay slip is applied after carving and scraped away to leave a colored inlay.

When not in the studio I am usually entertaining my 3 and 6 year old children and a whiny dog, or fixing an old house.