Mary in her studio making a Dragon Vase. Notice the damp towels wrapped around the lower part of the
vase to keep it from drying out while the upper part of it is being worked on.
vase to keep it from drying out while the upper part of it is being worked on.
Mary Coover grew up in the Lehigh Valley where her early experience of playing in a backyard creek began her lifelong love of clay. Shaping this wonderful slippery stuff into creatures that live and play in the watery, clay-filled places of the Earth still fascinates her. Although training taught her the skills of throwing pots on a potter's wheel, hand-building and glazing, the most important ingredient in her work is still her childhood love for clay.
Mary mixes her own porcelain using a formula she has had worked with for over thirty years. Porcelain is a blend of kaolin, ball clay, flint and feldspar. These materials are mixed and then wedged by hand. All of her objects are sculpted using pottery making techniques such as "throwing" on a potter's wheel or rolling the clay out into slabs and then building the forms and shaping. The forms must be hollowed out in order to dry evenly in preparation for firing. Minerals mixed with porcelain are applied for color before the low, or bisque firing. Glaze and iron oxide is then applied and the sculptures are then fired for a second time in a gas fired kiln where temperatures up to 2350 degrees F are reached. High temperature glazes, which are free of lead, are used on the Dragon Mugs.
Mary mixes her own porcelain using a formula she has had worked with for over thirty years. Porcelain is a blend of kaolin, ball clay, flint and feldspar. These materials are mixed and then wedged by hand. All of her objects are sculpted using pottery making techniques such as "throwing" on a potter's wheel or rolling the clay out into slabs and then building the forms and shaping. The forms must be hollowed out in order to dry evenly in preparation for firing. Minerals mixed with porcelain are applied for color before the low, or bisque firing. Glaze and iron oxide is then applied and the sculptures are then fired for a second time in a gas fired kiln where temperatures up to 2350 degrees F are reached. High temperature glazes, which are free of lead, are used on the Dragon Mugs.