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Art Baird Pottery

9527 Center Street

Holland Patent, NY 13354

(315)865-4504

E-MAIL art@artbairdpottery.com

Television Video Clip

Studio Video and Interview

I have been designing and producing wheel thrown and hand built stoneware for over 30 years. My work includes functional ware for the home, plus birdfeeders, hummingbird feeders, and planters for the garden. I enjoy working in porcelain for a change of pace, and I also create sculptural pieces in stoneware or porcelain.

After a two year internship at Pottery Northwest in Seattle, in 1973 my wife Cynthia and I purchased an 1870's stick style home which we have lovingly restored. I built my studio in the old barn behind the house. We live in an historic country village close to the Adirondacks of northern New York State, where my family and I enjoy canoeing, backpacking, hiking, fly-fishing and cross country skiing.

The sights, textures, and rhythms of the natural world in our garden, in the woods near our house, and in the Adirondack wilderness shape the way I think about my work. I find insights in design, glazing, and surface decoration from Japanese folk pottery, the major influence on my work, and from 19th century American salt glazed pottery. I mix my own clay and glazes because I believe that mastery of every aspect of ceramics from raw materials to finished pieces is essential to being a potter. My college degree in geology gives me an understanding of the origins and properties of the powdered clays, rocks, and minerals I use in my clay and glaze recipes. I have always built and repaired my kilns.

I fire my pots to cone 11(2300 F) in a 45 cubic foot down draft gas kiln. I like high temperature reduction firing because I never have complete control of how the flame affects the pieces. There in always an element of mystery. When I open the kiln, there will be surprising discoveries.


My studio	Loaded Kiln	1870's Stick Style home