Handmade Functional Pottery by Paul Zikmanis
All my pots are safe for Microwave and Dishwasher.
All my stoneware pots are safe for Microwave Dishwasher and Oven
About Me
My Pots
Many of the objects I make are my own invention, or the result of collaboration between my customers and myself. With most of my work, I give a description card with tips for use and recipes. I want my work to be used. I feel that my objects are not experienced properly until they are used.
My Work
My work is mostly made on the potters wheel, hand thrown. Some work is hand built.
My Inspiration
Some of my work is made in the spirit of the Arts & Crafts movement from “Turn of the Century” California. Functionality is of major importance to me. As Americans we usually feel that “Art” should be up on a wall. I, like the great Shoji Hamada feel that the true art is the skill, experience and actual making of my pottery.
How I make my Pottery
Process
Handmade high fire pottery is a multistep process which involves forming moist clay, drying, bisque firing, glazing and glaze firing.
I form most of my work by weighing, wedging and centering a ball of clay on a potter's wheel stretching it upwards into a vessel and lifting it off for drying. After it has dried slightly, each piece is then trimmed upside down on the wheel forming the "foot" which is left unglazed. This trimming process is most like turning wood on a lathe.
Each piece must then be thoroughly dried. Fast drying will cause cracking and warping. Thicker pieces must be dried very slowly while very thin pieces can be dried a little faster. Drying times can range from one day to a month.
The first firing, bisque firing, is a process which brings the pottery slowly up to 1853 degrees over 14 hours. The kiln will then cool for 20 hours. The purpose of the bisque is to remove all physical and chemical water from the clay and to make it strong enough to be handled yet still be absorbent enough to allow glaze to deposit on the surface.
Glaze is made by suspending ground oxides, carbonates, clays and stones in a water solution. I formulate my glazes for color, texture, depth, variation and of course function. All the glazes I use are safe for all foods and oven use. This quality is mainly a virtue of the temperature I fire to, but also a result of the proportion and types of oxides I choose. A bisqued piece is dipped into the suspended glaze solution, allowed to dry and then fired again.
The second firing, glaze firing, brings the pottery to 2383 degrees over 13 hours, with a cooling period of 36 hours. The purpose of the glaze fire is to melt the glaze onto the surface and to vitrify the clay. Vitrification is basically a partial melting of the clay. This is what makes high fired pottery different from low fired pottery. High fired pottery no longer absorbs liquid. This is both more functional and more sanitary than low fire pottery. This is what allows my work to be used in microwave ovens, conventional ovens and in dishwashers.
I develop my glazes for aesthetic and functional reasons, not for dependability of color in the kiln. As a rule high fire glazes are less easily controlled in the glaze fire. Many of my glazes are made specifically to be sensitive to the atmosphere inside the kiln. I fire in a reduction atmosphere, this means that there will be a lack of oxygen inside the kiln. This is what causes a copper glaze to give me either green or red, an iron glaze brown, gold, gray or blue or a cobalt glaze blue or purple. I consider variation in my glazes a beautiful expression of the randomness of life.
Visit me at a show if you have more questions.