MARIA CHAMBERS IS A TEACHER AND POTTER LIVING IN SAN FRANCISCO, CA.
It has been many years now since I first experienced clay during a summer workshop for children. Though we were hand-building pots from coils and slabs, I remember watching my teacher on a kick wheel in the old clay studio and being absolutely mesmerized. It was several years before I was finally big enough to try throwing myself - stretching my right leg down so that my big toe could just reach the flywheel – and I was hooked immediately. I kept my first piece, and made the uneven place on the rim into a little spout. My mother still uses it for cream.
For me, work revolves around connection and relationship. In my teaching it is the relationship between children and their environment, our connection to place and to each other. In my pottery it is about the relationship that people have to my work, the way my work gets incorporated into peoples’ lives. I find that scenes I encounter on walks and runs in the mountains show up on my pots - dewdrops on a twig. a winter moonrise. the ridgelines that surround my home.
Pottery for me is about absolute delight. I have to be in the right frame of mind. When I am grounded and relaxed, the fluidity of the feeling comes through my hands. Time slips away. I strive not for the thinnest wall possible or the lightest pot but for balance and ease. I want a pot that is comfortable in itself and in hand. I find mugs and cups the most satisfying to make – a handle that feels just right and a rim that is crisp but soft to sip from. Pots that are held in hand and used again and again. Pots that are humble but well-loved. These are the pots I love to make.
In 2013 Maria moved from CO to San Francisco where she is throwing pots in her studio, teaching and finding new favorite ridgelines to explore.
It has been many years now since I first experienced clay during a summer workshop for children. Though we were hand-building pots from coils and slabs, I remember watching my teacher on a kick wheel in the old clay studio and being absolutely mesmerized. It was several years before I was finally big enough to try throwing myself - stretching my right leg down so that my big toe could just reach the flywheel – and I was hooked immediately. I kept my first piece, and made the uneven place on the rim into a little spout. My mother still uses it for cream.
For me, work revolves around connection and relationship. In my teaching it is the relationship between children and their environment, our connection to place and to each other. In my pottery it is about the relationship that people have to my work, the way my work gets incorporated into peoples’ lives. I find that scenes I encounter on walks and runs in the mountains show up on my pots - dewdrops on a twig. a winter moonrise. the ridgelines that surround my home.
Pottery for me is about absolute delight. I have to be in the right frame of mind. When I am grounded and relaxed, the fluidity of the feeling comes through my hands. Time slips away. I strive not for the thinnest wall possible or the lightest pot but for balance and ease. I want a pot that is comfortable in itself and in hand. I find mugs and cups the most satisfying to make – a handle that feels just right and a rim that is crisp but soft to sip from. Pots that are held in hand and used again and again. Pots that are humble but well-loved. These are the pots I love to make.
In 2013 Maria moved from CO to San Francisco where she is throwing pots in her studio, teaching and finding new favorite ridgelines to explore.
