“My collection of vessels is the result of a meditative process. This series of similarly sized bright white porcelain objects represents my first output as a potter.

The size of these experimental entities reflects the limitations of how much material I could throw on the wheel when I began to work with clay. This is a physical component of a potter’s evolution that builds up over time. I can throw twice as much clay as when I began a year ago. Intuition is another factor that drives my process. Through touch and feel, I build and shift softly structured fine-grained clay into meticulously shaped works of sharp angles and curves that reflect the physicality of making pottery.

Arguably, pottery is mostly the result of the glazing process. I use an off-white glaze that complements the characteristics of fired porcelain and allows the form to be the focus. When displayed separately within a grid, these unique objects maintain their individual qualities while reflecting the essential relationship between clay and glaze that ideally retains the purity of their unique forms: collectively, they become my “little snowflakes.”

The global pandemic created an opportunity for me to become a potter. From the moment I could make a cylinder, I began producing this series. “The form is in the clay” was one of my teacher’s first lessons. Here, the form finds me.

– Laura Warren-Causton, b. side projects