Kandice Caldwell and Aaron Van Ornum - Shoalwater Pottery

All pieces are thrown on the potter’s wheel or hand-formed from a slab. We incorporate the patterns of Nature native to the Willapa Hills region in our pottery – we use real forest plants in our leaf imprints and the clay picks up an impressive level of pattern detail from the leaves; our use of leaves keeps us closely in touch with the seasonal succession of plants in the forest. The leaves simply burn away in the first firing, we hand-paint the impressions with underglaze, then dip glaze the full piece. Our porcelain and stoneware pieces finish-fire at 2,200 degrees which makes them strong and durable.