Like all good art, it has taken a lifetime to develop Hank Goodman Stoneware. Starting years ago on the family farm in northwest Iowa, Hank grew up working with his hands, guided by a mother who loved crafts and provided him with many opportunities to create objects in clay and other media. After graduating with an Art Education in 1972 and three years later with a MFA in ceramics from the University of Iowa, he returned to the family farm to set up his first studio. Soon social pressures forced him to get a traditional job. Even so, these have taken him to interesting places and have been an influence on his work: an assistant professorship at a small Midwestern college; a fine arts directorship at a private school in Colombia, South America; and high school and college teaching in El Paso, Texas.
In 1998 Hank moved his family to the mountains of North Carolina to return to making pottery. Using wood ash in his glaze gives his stoneware the subdued and sensuous glazes that are its trademark.
Ash glazes create a busy look that gives the stoneware a ‘wet look’. Ash contains most of the elements necessary to melt into a glaze. Hank screens the ash to remove charcoal and large particulates; it is then mixed with nontoxic minerals such as powdered granite, silica and clay. The powder is then suspended in a water slurry, sprayed onto the surface of the pottery and fired to approximately 2350-degrees Fahrenheit. This high firing melts the glaze and makes the clay itself impervious to liquid |
