Lyla Kaplan Pottery
treadle wheel thrown
functional stoneware
dishwasher and microwave safe
About my approach: I throw on a treadle wheel and high fire in an efficient reduction kiln at home. Occasionally, I participate in a community woodfire.
On my first day of HS ceramics class in Gahanna, Ohio, waaay back in 1985, my teacher was throwing for us and said, “Because people all over the world learned pottery through the oral tradition, anything you learn is not yours to keep, it is yours to share.” And just like that, I was thrown a lifeline that I didn't know I so desperately needed. I meandered but never left it.
The gentle, steady kicking on the treadle wheel steadies and allows for centering the clay as a form of meditation. Spirals are everywhere in nature and they happen naturally on the spinning wheel. I enhance the spirals by pressing a rib into the clay or by adding slip while the wheel spins, much like fingerpainting!
Pottery can be a conduit that helps us connect to our geological and historical past, food, each other, the moment, the earth, and the universe.
Perceived through the senses, a pot can provoke a feeling that can be difficult to describe, perhaps because an empty pot holds an invisible potential. As Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote in The Little Prince, "What is essential is invisible to the eye." Pottery is felt and experienced when life happens, in use, with people, and alone. The experience can grow and change over time.
Functional pots can become vessels for memory. For example, a large bowl that served something delicious during a memorable dinner party later becomes tied to that meaningful experience. A cradled mug that has helped someone find a moment of pause when they needed it then becomes a welcomed reminder to pause. In that way, a pot becomes animated, developing its own life. If a beloved pot breaks through use, it is comforting to know it served its function and lived a good life.
Fire brings an element of the unknown to clay. Each firing involves a complex interaction between the claybody, glaze layers, time, temperature, and atmosphere (and the kiln dogs/gods).
Clouds and rain are metaphors for the joy found inside of tears.
It is an endless cycle of searching for the invisible space between internal/external, emptiness/fullness, inhale/exhale, oxidation/reduction, joy/sorrow, and function/experience.
"Humans are the only animals to have scalp whorls on the top of their heads " - Dr. Sharad Paul, 2016"There is a higher prevalence of counterclockwise whorls in the Southern hemisphere" twin study- Ig Nobel Anatomy award, 2024also about 🌀: Wikipedia and a cool web page
About my firing: I first bisque in an electric kiln powered by home solar. I mix my own glazes and fire in an insulated, downdraft hybrid kiln that uses wood and propane (following Joe Finch's design). During claybody reduction (^010-05), I introduce discarded tomato and pepper stakes to remove oxygen in the kiln. Removing oxygen from the iron oxide in the clay (Fe2O3 to FeO) allows the beautiful iron blue hues to emerge through my white nuka-type glaze (glazy.org). This glaze also responds to ash at that temp. The rest of the firing is in oxidation up to 2200° (^7). I switched to ^7 instead of ^10 because when I had my soda kiln, I discovered that clay and glazes in cooler spots were fine, and it's much more efficient. Kentucky Mudworks makes iron-bearing midrange clays that don't bloat at ^7-8. Slow-cooling at the end reoxidizes some of the iron and creates the Gohonde (firefly) spotting effect on a few pots.
About buying my pots: I don't make pottery to make a living, but I do make pots to live. So my process is slow (I make "slow pots!"). Sometimes I do sell them, either on Etsy, via custom orders, or at local sales. Follow me on instagram if you'd like to know where I am setting up or email me lyla @ lylakaplanpottery dot com.
If you would like to host an exceptional experience of pottery paired with food or drink, I can curate that. See old examples here (this website can only be seen via computer, not mobile).
Ceramics Monthly - Down to Earth - LK, 2006.pdf
"Mr. Smith," James Smith, 1988, instructing Kristy (Jenks) Cross at the treadle wheel in high school. It's the only picture I have of this dear dear man, may his memory be a blessing.
thanks for reading!