(fist thumping) (clay slapping) (clay scraping) (happy bluegrass music) - I'm gonna quote Tom Richards from your website, "In searching for a way to relieve the workday stress, I decided to take a class in pottery."

Is that the rest of your life is?

- That was pretty much it.

Yeah, I found out that I was a potter all along, and I just didn't know it.

- You have an artist background in theater, we know, but how did you know that taking a class in pottery triggered this art in you, in this form?

- Well, I guess it's about expressing your ideas, rather than interpreting somebody else's ideas.

And it's about that expression.

- [Shelley] What is this art of pottery?

- It's about taking something that is very natural, earth like, and creating something that's functional, put potatoes in it.

But at the same time, that is a piece of art.

You look at it every day, but yet you can put the green beans in it.

- Yeah, how is it done, where do you start?

- Well, fortunately (laughing) there's a lot of companies that make clay (laughing), but there are some potters out there that will harvest it.

And just every sense of that, they go to a clay deposit, and then add the necessary ingredients to make it stable and usable.

Our youngest son lives in East Lansing, and they back up to a preserve.

And our grandson and our son and I have gone in the backyard and harvested clay outta that.

- You've got Richard's clay.

- Yeah (laughing).

- Yes, yes.

Tell me about the process of the wheel and that shaping, and some say that's therapeutic to have the clay roll through the fingers, and do the shaping.

I'm not gonna go to a particular movie, that has the- - (laughing) Everybody does, that's fine.

- A unique scene, but is that therapeutic?

- It is, yeah, it's very contemplative.

You just get lost in the work.

You know, there's a thing they call the flow state, so time sort of evaporates, and you get lost in the work.

You know, you become centered with the clay, and all those other things on the outside just disappear.

And it was funny 'cause the first time that really happened to me, I was glazing, and I had to go and just go back to my studio, and just do the one little thing in the pot, and you know, next thing I know it was 2:30 in the morning, and I didn't know that was gonna happen (laughing).

- Talk to me about texture.

- As you get better at what it is you're doing, it's all about looking at that visual interest.

So it's, in the beginning, you're just learning how to make a pot.

And then as you continue to grow and figure out things, you realize that there's more to it than just making the piece.

You know, there's that surface and the visual interest.

So whether you're creating that visual interest with texture, or glaze, or glaze and texture, and then there's adding slip to it.

A slip is essentially liquid clay that's got different colorants in it, so you get different colors.

And that can give you some very specific designs, where glazing, you know, things melt and move and whatnot.

So it's a different approach, but it's all about that visual interest.

- Function versus sitting on a mantle, what's the difference?

- Well, there's a couple ways to look at that.

And it's function has tendency to sell more than non-functional.

But there are people that will buy that coffee cup that has that visual interest in it, that when you're drinking that morning coffee, and you're figuring out what you're gonna do for the day, you look at that cup and think about it, and it helps you start the day.

(gentle bluegrass music) Okay, so I'm going to make a bowl with some heavy texture, using this slump mold.

And starts out with (fist thumping) rolling out the clay here.

So I'm pounding it down, and then stretching it.

(clay slapping) So ideally thinking about thickness of the slab, and then I have to think about function.

So the thicker this slab, the heavier the pot is.

And so, you know, with a large pot, it's pretty thick, and I go put a bunch of potatoes in it, and that adds more weight, and so we want to be thinking about that.

Stretching it, moving it in different directions, so it's all, not in this, get those clay particles moving in a different direction here, working together.

So that's about it in terms of thickness.

And then I'm gonna add some texture with it, with this screen here.

And this is the leaf protector you put in your eaves troughs, you keep the leaves out, and it creates this funky texture.

So I'm rolling that in the clay.

You can see the diamond shapes coming out on it.

Okay, so I'm thinking about the center of this pot, and got a stamp I made, and it's going to be the center of the bowl.

I figure about how big to make this, sort of a rough cut kind of a thing.

And then cut a little more off here, and lay it on top.

And this is a bag filled with rice, and then cut some more off.

Okay, so I've got the basic shape I want.

You see some of the mold sticking out there, and I like that unevenness of the rim.

So as soon as this sets up a little bit more, I'll trim more of that off.

And thinking about how this sits on the tabletop, I wanna put some feet on here, and take some of this clay.

Okay, now I wanna add some texture to the outside of this.

And this is a wire brush.

And remember, this is upside down.

Lemme figure out where to put these feet.

Okay, and then can add some water.

So this has to firm up some before I can finish and turn it upside down.

So, but we have a completed one so you can take a look at it.

(gentle bluegrass music) - All right, time for Tom Richards examples.

I understand there's a small, kind of a round pot that you're proud of?

- Yes, there's no glaze on it.

It's all interaction with the flame, and the wood ash that falls on it.

And it was soaked in a solution of soda ash and water, and that's all that was done.

And there is some striping in it that they call and it neriage, and is colored clay.

And so when I was working on the wheel, you get a form, like a very big hockey puck, very tall and thick, and you take out sections of the exterior, and then add clay that is the same clay body, but you add colorant to it.

This had iron with it that I added, and created the pot.

So it's got these wide stripes in it, and it's different from other things.

- There's one more pot I wanna put on the spotlight there.

It's got a smoky finish to it?

- Right, it is, oh, the process, they call a pit firing, where it burns down, then add more to it, and then that burns down.

And so you got all these different layers of different colors of smoke and ash in it, and then it put some pig feet on it.

And that apparently had copper in it, because that copper turned to red on the piece, or a little pink blushing of it.

- How strong is Kalamazoo in supporting, not only the art of pottery, but arts in general?

- It's very supportive, it's not just theater, but it's concerts and the active arts community.

And they do like an art hop every weekend, where you go and watch people do their work.

You know, they teach at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, and so I'm active down there with that, as well as sell in their gallery shop.

- Thank you for your time, congratulations on your success.

- Oh, thank you, I appreciate it.

(gentle bluegrass music) - Thank you so much for watching.

There's also more to explore with "Kalamazoo Lively Arts" on YouTube, Instagram, and wgvu.org.

We'll see you next time.

- [Announcer] Support for "Kalamazoo Lively Arts" is provided by the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation, helping to build and enrich the cultural life of greater Kalamazoo.