Lois Edgar
Ceramic, Printmaking
1066 8th St, Boulder, CO 80302
Since I was five years old and making little clay birds, I've always been interested in working with clay. I began really working in ceramics in my twenties in California, in classes taught by Ed Traynor at Pasadena City College. After ten years, however, I took a long break to follow a career as a research biologist. I finally returned to clay when I was working at the University of Colorado and joined the Boulder Potters' Guild in 2002. Since retiring from lab work in 2007, art work and clay have been major pursuits in my life.
I work in high-fired stoneware and porcelain, and make mostly functional pieces. Much of my work is salt-fired. I decorate my pots with slips, underglazes, wax resist, carving, and inlay - a variety of techniques which will let me create linear and pictorial designs on functional surfaces. I also like to work with surface textures and celadon glazes on porcelain. Perhaps my biology background explains why I use a lot of birds and animals in my decoration, perhaps it is also my lifelong interest and appreciation of nature and its designs. Another source of inspiration for me has been primitive art and cave paintings, which I like to use with the salt firing process.
I also work in paper, making prints and handprinted embossed cards, again using mainly inspirations from nature. For this work, I have a large etching press in my home studio, which has seen lots of use over the years. I make the original designs for plates in clay, then make a master mold from these using liquid rubber; a final plate is then cast in epoxy resin for use in the press.
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