Stephanie Welden Pottery


Stephanie Welden..... Pottery Stephanie Welden is well known in the High Country area for her large jars with horse motifs and for the flowing glazes in blue and rust which she uses on her functional ware. She has been influenced by South American, American Indian and Japanese potters and she has also studied horse artists such as Stubbs and Degas. Encouraged from childhood to develop her creative talents, when she became interested in horseback riding she began to draw horses. This interest developed into a real fondness for the animals and she spent many hours studying other artists or drawing from life. Most of Welden's work is glazed with the wax resist technique. She glazes the pot once with a rust color glaze then paints on a design in wax. When she glazes the pot again, the second glaze does not adhere to the wax, so that a pattern appears on the finished piece. The wax burns off when the pot is fired. The shiny finish of this glaze combination gives her work the wet look of freshly thrown pottery. Welden attended the National Academy of Design in New York City and then went on to get a degree in Fine Arts from Columbia University. Eventually her interest in making pottery took up more and more of her time so she retired from her position working for the New York State Library and moved to the Boone-Blowing Rock area to join its wonderful craft community. Her ceramic education includes many workshops and membership in the Albany Ceramic Institute in Albany, New York, where she attended classes for several years and sold her work through their gallery. An intensive course taught by Ann Currier at Alfred University, the nation's best known ceramics school, was a great help in giving her the essentials for setting up her own studio. She works in stoneware clay and fires to a temperature of 2165°. The pots are dishwasher safe, lead free, and ovenproof. The designs vary according to the inspiration of the moment, the final piece is always a revelation.