Sgraffito Trees  

Growing up in New York State, I spent loads of time in forests — climbing trees, hiking, camping. Being surrounded by trees is how I have always felt at home. When I had to move my own family to dry Southern California for 10 years, we desperately missed living among the tall trees. This is when I began carving them into clay. For me, the trees represented protecton, life, family and the land. The positive and negative spaces created by carving the black underglaze allowed me to explore and play with how the air would move and flow between and behind the leaves. To those who have lived with the works, the images often represent their own personal connections with trees — memories from childhood, a dream, or something as ancient as the Tree of Life.

Sgraffito is a style of carving through a layer of slip or underglaze, on an unfired, leather-hard clay piece, to reveal a design with the contrasting clay below the surface. My sgraffito tree pieces are all one-of-a-kind. The handbuilt clay bases are pinched & smoothed (with many marks of the handbuilding process intentionally left remaining ), then trees are carefully drawn & carved freehand. They are bisque fired, then the delicate carved areas are finish-fired with clear gloss glaze (cone 5 - around 2,150 degrees) to protect them for use.