Wheel Throwing 1 : Beginner Wheel Throwing

Karis Barry has been making a living as a potter for over 40 years, selling at art fairs and through galleries. She took an adult education class in MA one winter and bought a pottery wheel before she could even throw a good pot, thinking it would be a hobby. After taking more classes at some museum schools in the Boston area, she bought a kiln and hasn't looked back.

When making her pottery her goals are to make something useful and to give visual pleasure. Her work has been influenced by living and traveling in Southeast Asia and Europe. But it is also influenced by her Norwegian ancestry which gives her an affinity for the clean Scandinavian sense of design in regard to form, as well as the Norwegian love of nature.

The images on the work are created by using engobes and sgraffito. An engobe is a layer of liquid clay applied to the surface to the pot. Colored by various oxides, the engobes used on these works are applied when the porcelain is still damp. After the piece dries, a design is chosen and sketched onto the engobe then sgraffitoed (from the italian word “to scratch”) to expose the porcelain body underneath. This creates a slightly raised surface where the engobe has been left on to create the image.

LP Keller fell in love with the Friendly City when she studied art at JMU. In 2016, she earned a BFA in Studio Art with a concentration in Ceramics. She is a certified art teacher in Virginia and used to teach in Harrisonburg City Public Schools. She loves exploring art with her students and seeing how her students express themselves through art. She is a mother, a baker, a ceramicist, an art teacher, and the woman behind LPMpottery.

Mariza Dovis has always been an avid creative and maker for as long as she can remember. She followed her passion for clay by receiving her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Ceramics and Certification to teach Art at JMU. She taught in Fairfax County Schools, Woodland Montessori, Spitzer Art Center and now Friendly City Clay. She is also a massage therapist and allows her artistic endeavors to flow through her hands to assist in the wellness of her community.

She comes to us as an instructor of wheel throwing as she is passionate about teaching what she learns and knows pedagogy is an avenue to improve the artistry of what she is immersed in. In addition to creating art in the studio, she is the Creative behind Mahalan Wellness and @marizadovisart. Her personal life is filled with lovingly tending to her family and friends, gardens of flowers and vegetables and her next poem to read or write.