Jan Jacque
Jan Jacque begins her process of creation with a walk in the woods. After gathering fallen branches and stones, she hauls them back to her studio, where she studies the form each suggests. The shape of an interesting stick determines the form the clay will take to complement it.
All of Jacque's pieces are handbuilt from fine-textured white clay. Using both slab and coil building methods of construction, she slowly adapts the clay to fit the wood. In the final stages of both methods, she paddles, scrapes, and sands the pieces until very smooth; they are then airbrushed with colorants and pit fired. A long, complex process, but the results are well worth the effort.