About

My name is Ben Mitchell and I am a slipware potter working in Rochester, New York. The majority of my work is thrown on the wheel and decorated with a red iron oxide wash. While I draw inspiration from English and French slipware traditions, I aim for my work to be understood as a contemporary interpretation of these historical forms. Rather than trailing a contrasting slip for decoration, I use brushed red iron oxide to create abstract suggestions of form.



The clay I use begins as a smooth red mid-fire stoneware. I then add a generous amount of crushed refractory material to introduce texture into the clay body. After a piece has been thrown on the wheel, I apply a white slip (liquid clay) to the surface. The work is then put through its initial firing. Afterward, I use the slip as a canvas, adding brushwork with red iron oxide. Finally, the pieces are glazed in either a clear or honey-colored glaze and fired to their final temperature.



Every stage of the process is carried out by hand, from formulating the clay, slips, and glazes to decorating the surface and firing the kiln. Because of this, no two pieces are ever exactly the same. In my throwing, I aim to highlight what I find to be clay’s most compelling quality: its fluidity. Rather than attempting to imitate the qualities of materials such as metal or wood, I embrace the natural malleability of clay and allow forms to develop without strict concern for symmetry. To further this approach, I often manipulate pieces off the wheel after throwing instead of trimming them. In doing so, each work becomes a record of a specific moment in time.