Terry Crook
I have been a ceramic artist for over 50 years. Although I started out as mainly a functional potter, much of my current work is decorative. I am currently working with several low-fire techniques, including Naked raku with a sacrificial slip, horsehair raku, wood-fired pit vessels, and saggar firing. A saggar is either a clay container that I make in which to fire a piece of pottery or a wrapping, such as aluminum foil. This process involves placing a burnished and previously fired pot in the saggar, where I have also strategically placed various materials such as copper wire, wood shavings, copper carbonate, copper sulfate, salt, steel wool, seaweed, or ferric chloride. I fire this container with the pot and the organic material in it. The piece that results is a lovely blend of deliberateness and spontaneity with a hint of landscape. The serendipitous nature of these firing models the art we find in our natural world and dramatically demonstrates that pottery is a fire art.