Mary Swann 
Welcome
Pleasing to the touch as well as the eye, my pottery is an art form meant for daily enjoyment. Casseroles are for baking and serving, steamers for steaming and tea pots for heating water to pour over tea bags. My particular specialty, pierced fruit bowls or colanders, range in size form baby berry bowls to large fruit bowls can also be used to drain pasta.
I make dinnerware and while there are always new things, I keep my basic designs unchanged over the years so people can acquire matching pieces. I've been expanding on my Raku inspired craquele' glazes.
Crazing is accidental. Craquele' is deliberate. My glaze technique gives a lovely crazed pattern, but that is completely functional. The warm pieces steam and crackle as they are dipped into a second glaze and actually keep tinkling as they cool. The process is very much fun to do and the results are spectacular at times!
Needless to say, everything is meticulously finished. Except for the wall vases, everything is hand thrown. I formulate my own glazes and fire in an oxidation atmosphere to approximately 1250 C.
My "Redstone" clay body is a combination of natural clays from Amador and Calaveras Counties in California. It is prepared by the Quyles in Murphys, California. They have a gallery where they show their own work and the work of others, myself included. Visit Quyle Kilns if you get up to the Gold Country at 3353 East Highway 4, Murphys, CA 95247.