Our next story is brought to us by a professor at Moorhead State University.

It takes us to Rowan County there, where Quinn Maher has been harvesting clay from Clack Mountain.

Let's check out his process of working with clay as he demonstrates the intricacies of this art form.

[music playing] [music playing] I've lived in Morehead for about four years now.

We're trying to plant a garden, and we found that there's just a whole lot of clay.

Not a lot of topsoil in this area.

I found a spot up on Clack Mountain where I had a pure vein of clay, and I started harvesting.

I started collecting, and I started testing and researching to find the clay that was going to be best to use and be safe to put out in the world as well.

As a potter, I was really excited to collect some of that clay and pinch it out and make a little pinch pot and test it and see how hot I could fire it and for it to survive.

Lo and behold, all of those little tests survived.

Not only did those tests survive, but it was a really wonderful clay to work with.

Fresh out of the ground.

[music playing] Wedging is important because it prepares the clay.

It puts the particles of clay where they need to be.

And it also forces out any pockets of air that might exist, moving that clay into itself until all of the air gets pushed out.

[music playing] First thing is I'm going to center this clay, get it smooth as the wheel's spinning.

Get it all right and I'm going to open it up, establish the inside depth of my cylinder here, and establish the diameter of the inside of the cup.

Here, I'm going to start pulling the clay up.

And once I get the majority of this clay up into a cylinder, now I can start to stretch the clay or change the volume a little bit and create a little bit more of a complex form.

Or I can rough up the form a little bit.

[music playing] After everything's made, it's got to rest and it's got to totally dry out.

All the water has to evaporate.

Now ready for the first firing, which is called the bisque firing.

The first firing is basically to turn the clay physically and chemically into ceramic.

[music playing] Glaze is a number of elements and minerals, metals suspended in water.

That's all been formulated to live on the side of your pot and be that last decorative and protective and functional.

For the most part, glaze is going to be applied by brushing or spraying.

But what we generally do is we dip.

Fill a cylinder and pour it out, and then dip it and submerge it for two to three seconds.

And you've got a lovely coat of glaze.

[music playing] The final kiln is fired with gas.

It's got six Venturi burners.

A kiln from start to finish, generally I start at 8:00 p.m.

at night.

Let it ramp up in temperature very, very slowly overnight with a number of turn ups.

And I start firing the kiln really at about 7:00 a.m.

the following day.

I usually have the kiln off or to temperature at about 3:00 p.m.

And then from there, you turn off the gas and you close the damper and it's just cooling naturally.

It's going to take about 36 to 40 hours to cool back down to a temperature that you can unload and handle.

[music playing] I do believe that ceramics is an art form.

As a craftsman, I think that I have to make something engaging, like visually beautiful or ugly or otherwise.

I have to make something that somebody wants to engage.

Just like a painting, right?

Or a sculpture or a photograph.

I also have to make something that someone's going to want to use after they've touched it.

I'm most interested in functional utilitarian ceramics.

I like making things that people are going to use.

It's all about that connection.

It's all about the materiality of using something handmade.

Growing up, I was just always interested in objects and the way that they are used and the way that they hold meaning and the way that they hold connection to people, to places.

I liked objects that got used for specific reasons and even more for specific events.

[music playing] My greatest success is if you had a piece of mine, you were using it.

It's an honor.

It's an honor to make things and then have people use it.

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