McCann Studios

@mccannstudios.bsky.social

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Welcome to my pottery studio For more, visit https://www.mccannstudiospottery.com

A fresh monarch butterfly rests on my hand, which is also holding a ceramic spoonrest I made and decorated with a monarch butterfly.
A top-down view of my workbench showing a strip of extruded clay next to a yellow ruler, two shorter pieces of extruded clay already curved into a U shape, and two pieces of clay fitted into the bottoms of large plastic yogurt containers to take that specific curvature.
A video of a dish on the pottery wheel, large and round, being altered to be a rectangular baking dish. The clay is ivory and the potters hands are visible reshaping the dish.
A casserole dish, freshly made of clay on the pottery wheel. The shape is a soft rectangle.
A high speed video where I use a caulk-gun style clay extruder for the first time. You can see me problem solve a few challenges as I make lengths of extruded beige clay.
A tall vertical photo looking down on handmade ceramic egg trays, some sized to hold 12 eggs, some for 6 eggs. The colors and textures vary.
A large ceramic dish in the process of being glazed. A blue glaze has been applied and wiped back to highlight the crochet doily imprinted in the clay.
A low angle photo taken of the top shelf of my cooling kiln with the lid opened just a few inches. Cooling pottery is visible in the shadowy interior.
A video of me squashing a clay pot I just created on the pottery wheel. The sides have a couple of vertical tears where I pushed the crackle effect too far! Natural sound hears my metal tools rolling on the metal wheelhead.
A timelapse video showing a top down view of me squeezing liquid glazes onto a bowl I made. The glazes are in small bottles, and they run down the sides of the bowl in ROYGBIV drips, then swirl and meet in the bottom of the bowl.
A freshly thrown clay vase with a crackled blue exterior showing how the clay stretched into form.
A timelapse video of a vase being thrown on the pottery wheel. It starts as a centered lump of clay, is pulled into a cylinder, is smoothed with a metal rib tool, and then bright blue underglaze is added. After the underglaze is dried a bit with a heat gun a layer of sodium silicate goes on clear, and is also dried a bit. Finally the vase is shaped from the inside, causing the outer dried layer to crackle as it expands.
A freshly thrown clay pot in the shape of a wide urn has a turquoise outer surface that is disrupted by a pattern of crackles and crevices like those in dried mud. The interior of the crackles is the warm grey color of the clay.
A wide photo of a 6’ folding table full of freshly bisqued pottery. The ceramics are all ivory colored and unglazed, and are stacked like the drying dishes they are.
A photo looking down on six clay berry bowls. They are unfired, at different stages of drying, and all have different patterns of holes in the sides and bottoms.
A close view of the inner wall of a clay egg tray. There is a raised texture of grasses and cattails.
A sped up video of me shaping a clay slab into a tray that will hold farm fresh eggs on a countertop. I start by adding texture from a crochet doily, then invert the slab onto a dozen wooden eggs glued to a board and use my hands to shape it from flat to curved. Now it’s firming up. No sound.
A handbuilt egg tray sized for six eggs. The tray is made of still soft clay and impressed with a pattern made by rolling the slab with a crochet doily. The tray holds three wooden eggs and is resting on a green quilters mat.
Five egg trays made of clay, all with crochet patterns imprinted into the clay. They are presented from first attempt on the left to most recent creation on the right, all resting on a full sized sheet pan. The clay is in various stages of drying.
A photo of an egg tray for holding farm fresh eggs. It has been shaped from a slab of clay, which is still leather-hard in this photo. The wooden eggs used to shape the clay are visible behind the tray, both resting on a green quilters mat with yellow measuring marks.
Cutting out the pattern for each part, just like a sewing pattern.
A fast speed video showing part of the process of making a handbuilt ceramic bowl. The slab of soft clay has a crochet doily peeled away, leaving the pattern impressed, and is cut to size, then flipped onto a hump mold and shaped by hand.
A pair of ceramic dishes decorated with loosely drawn red poppies, bees, and honeycomb patterns. The exteriors are glazed in dark green.
A group of 8 ceramic dishes, all with a rose petal texture. 7 are large and glazed in white, the 8th is smaller (9”) and pink. They are all intended to be serving dishes.
A close photo of the turtle design on a small ceramic plate. The turtle is two shades on green and stands on a brown lower glaze in front of a sky blue upper glaze.
A video in which I hold and rotate a ceramic vase to show all sides, in, out, and under. The internal glaze is glittery black, and the outside glaze has a band of red at the top, and then very reflective silver on most of the exterior. Glimpses of the surroundings appear reflected in the silver glaze, including me.
A very colorful ceramic bowl, just big enough to fill my hand holding it aloft. This bowl sports many bright opaque colors in dripping spotted patterns, swirling together in the bottom of the dish.
Three ceramic blates with satin textured mint green glaze on their exteriors, are arranged to show how they’re shaped. One is propped up to show the interior view, with tulips and a bee and some hexagons, and the other two dishes are sitting flat to display the profile shape, one on the table, and the other raised on a black wooden crate.
A set of 2 ceramic plates, 2 bowls, and 2 mugs sport speckled maroon and speckled orange glazes, matching the school colors
A small slip cast vase with the word AMACO visible as raised clay under drippy turquoise glaze, showing some dark purple at the bottom. This vase was a way to test new glazes at a suppliers booth at the ceramics conference I recently attended.
A plate made of a grey clay, still soft and freshly impressed with a sunflower.
A ceramic mug shaped like a round bellied cauldron on three stubby ball feet has a loop handle big enough for two fingers, and is glazed in a glittery black.
I hold up a small vase, rotating it to show all sides. The vase is made with a dark red brown clay, and only has glaze on the inside and part of the top. The glaze is a very dark glittery brown that looks nearly black. The bare clay is smooth, like a terracotta flower pot.
A ceramic platter textured to look like a rose petal pattern and glazed in a very bubblegum pink glaze.
A detail photo shows a design of blueberries on their stem. The linework is dark blue and a scattering of the berries are filed in with blues and purples. The design rests on top of a satin white glaze.
Eight blates (bowl+plate=blate) arranged to show off the individual doily patterns inside. The doily patterns are glazed in a translucent periwinkle color, and the rest of the dish has clear glaze, showing the warm white clay. Zoom in to see how the threads of the crochet are visible.
Eight wide shallow dishes (bowl+plate=blate) are arranged to show the individual doily patterns impressed in the center of each. The dishes are green and the doily patterns are black.
A timelapse video showing how I use the pottery wheel to add a raised foot ring to a slab built dish. Check out my new purple apron from Walking Apron 💜
An unknown conference attendee picked up and photographed the mug I donated to the charity cup sale. My ego grew 87 sizes!
A selfie in the chilly wind. The white background that resembles snow is actually salt.
The items I got in the annual Clay Buddies shot glass/small item exchange. Two darling cups, one in beach colors and the other an adorable bunny (complete with tail and toes), and a silky smooth spoon.
A pile of samples and purchases and fliers all stacked together on the hotel room desk.
Holding my mug for the cup sale aloft in the out of focus foreground against the in focus background of the Salt Lake City Utah skyline, which is, in turn, backed by mountains.
A handbuilt ceramic mug with a scale texture and a sculptural tail fin. The glaze is a flowing blue green that cascades over black.
A pencil drawing of two tulips, with one of them painted with underglaze in red pink and yellow. The ivory background is bisque fired clay.
A sped up video taken from an overhead perspective of the pottery wheel as I trim and smooth excess clay to refine the shape of a bowl.
Two little cups, approximately the size and shape of shot glasses rest on my hand. They are glittery black inside, and rainbow striped outside, one with bats over the rainbow colors, and the other with spiderwebs over the rainbow colors.
A picture looking down into my most recently cooled kiln load. The inside of the kiln is made of fire bricks, heating elements in hard ceramic holders, thermocouples, and posts and shelves.
A ceramic dish, wide shallow bowl shaped, with a crochet doily pattern impressed in the center. The glaze is a slightly blue green, with darker tones in the lines of the doily. Unloaded from the kiln yesterday.
An overhead view of me throwing a plate on the pottery wheel, sped up 10x. No sound.
I’m holding a ceramic mug in front of a green ivy covered fence. The mug has a scale texture on the outside, and the handle is formed to look like a tail, with fanciful tail fins flipped against the side on the mug. The glaze is navy blue with a medium green cascading over.
A timelapse video of me shaping a lump of clay on the pottery wheel. The clay appears light pinkish brown until the end, when the slip is scraped away to reveal white and brown marbling.
A ceramic mug, glazed in a glittery dark red, with a dragon scale texture on the outside. The handle curves to resemble a tail, and has a shiny silver tip sculpted to stand slightly away from the mug body.
A group of eight bisque fired ceramic dishes have dark underglaze applied to the crochet doily designs in their centers. Each dish sports a different doily, all of which are impressions of heirlooms.
A timelapse video shows a view of a freshly thrown wide shallow clay dish, still sitting on the pottery wheel. I spread a blue doily into the dish and press it in using a roller, then peel it away. A quick tidy of the walls, then I tilt the dish to show the design in the center. Crochet credit to my great grandmother.
A pair of ceramic mugs with handles towards the viewer. The mugs are made with multiple tones of brown clays, giving a marbled or wood grained appearance, and the mug handles are textured and shaped to add to that effect.
An off-white ceramic surface with pencil-sketched tulips. The petals of one have been colored with underglazes in red pink and yellow.
Colorful sewing buttons form the centers of doodle-style flowers decorating a ceramic mug. The top half is glazed in a flowing turquoise that flows over the handle as well.
A textured ceramic dish formed from a slab with wavy edges spins on a turntable. Three green pears rest in the center of the blue dish, reflecting slightly in the bright sunshine.
A close view of a ceramic dish decorated with a trio of seahorses and some seaweed each made with raised slabs of clay in different colors.