Janee Graver

Functional Pottery Artist

This chapter

This chapter of my life is about creativity and soul. It was an energetic change from a corporate and urban lifestyle to a different type of jungle in Costa Rica. I built a studio with 2 potter’s wheels, a kiln, a firepit for open firing, a dry room, and all the basics.In past chapters I have been running companies and raising children and always throwing pots when I could. An entrepreneur with never enough time. It is such a privilege to share my work with you now as I grow into the role of artist.If my work speaks to you, please reach out. I am happy to donate pieces for charitable fund raising. And delighted to make something for you on commission. Just ask. Want a pothead for your partner’s birthday? Reach out.

Work


families

At Parson's School of Design I learned the Eastern philosophy about pottery. In this discipline the wheel rotates in the opposite direction from western potters.
And you make the same form over and over. I have practiced this methodology for most of my life. Three months of bowls and then 5 months of lidded cylinders and then perhaps 3 more months of bowls with handles.This practice has taught me to see the beauty of each form in a series with my eyes AND my hands. It is rare that I only make one of a form. Yet each piece is one of a kind.

families

Potheads

Sometimes we make lucky mistakes. When my finger got caught in the rim of a pot, it occurred to me that this pot needed a face. Potheads were born. Sometimes known as “vases with faces” These characters manifest themselves and they make us laugh.Each one has personality and it is often a reflection of the friend who is visiting my studio at that moment.

Potheads

Being Centered while embracing Impermanence

“You center the clay and it centers you.”
Simon LeachWhen working on the wheel, the form and the clay are constantly shifting. So you make the perfect form and then take it off the wheel but somehow it dries off center. Or you miss the center when trimming. It is such a marvelous metaphor for life. And nature. How does the toucan find her center and balance to fly from place to place with such a long beak?

Bowls

Porcelain to Earthenware

More than 40 years, I focused on throwing porcelain. This is a manufactured clay that originates in China. It typically includes feldspar, kaolinite, mica, and quartz. This combination creates a beautiful and dense clay body that is white or gray. Many potters think that porcelain is the most difficult clay to throw. Like throwing cream cheese. Porcelain has a memory so that when you make a throwing mistake, it may not show up until the piece goes into the kiln.I am still learning how to work with the Costa Rican clay. It is earthy and sandy. Porcelain is smooth. There are many types of clay that one can find in Costa Rica. The clay tradition here is indigenous starting with the Chorotegas in GuitilTheir work is tribal, rich with color and surface design. In Costa Rica I have started to learn more and more about surface design and I aspire to start firing in my fire pit instead of the electric kiln I am currently using. There is so much to learn.

wide mouth vessels

About clay

Clay is the essence of the earth. It has many forms. Found in the earth, in rivers and on land. Clay is the beginning of so many types of rock. Here in Costa Rica I have learned much about clay by visiting a 4th generation clay farm. Four generations of digging the clay out of the ground and putting it through a filter and mixer with water. Then moving the clay solution with a gravity based system of pvc pipe to a trough to settle and then putting it out in the sun to be ready for me to mold.The clay from this Santa Ana farm is harvested throughout the year. And then based on the time of year and location other minerals might be added - like feldspar.Throwing the clay on a potter’s wheel varies based on where it originates. So, I have learned that the clay will tell me what it wants to be (if I can listen carefully). And because of this learning, I do not start throwing a ball of clay with a preconceived notion. I let my senses and my body work with the clay and I do not insist on controlling it.

casseroles

Patience

Pottery has taught me patience. In college I had a job as a studio attendant in the Student Union. I became impatient and I opened the kiln before it had properly cooled down. I was fired on the spot and I ruined other people’s art. It was a hard lesson. I find myself learning patience again and again with clay. Just last week I made a series of platters and instead of drying them slowly under plastic in the dry room, I chose to put them in the tropical sun. They promptly cracked and wound up in the recycle bin.

Mugs

The potter’s wheel

There are many types of potter’s wheels. I personally prefer an old style kick wheel. This wheel is 300 pounds and when you kick it the wheel head turns. I love the full body experience.The kick wheel is how pottery has been made for centuries and my wheel is probably 40 years old. It has a tractor seat — nothing more comfortable than that!I also keep an electric wheel in my studio for guests or experiments.

vessels

The Kiln

Once you make a piece of pottery there are two choices: save the piece and put it in the kiln or recycle the piece back into a malleable clay.If you choose to put that clay in the kiln then you are also recognizing that the piece might be discovered 3000 years from now in a museum. You are making an agreement with the earth. This is what drives my decision to fire or not.Clay that has been fired is now actually stone. And when you add the glaze and fire again, the combination is stone AND glass.

cups & vases

Contact

If my work speaks to you please reach out. I have not started to sell my pieces in Costa Rica but I am delighted to make something for you on commission. Just ask. Want a pothead for your partner’s birthday? Reach out, send me an email or fill out the contact form.

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