 Hello, my name is Trevor Jungberg and I'm a working wood-fired potter in Woodbridge, Connecticut. The raw materials that I choose to use for a particular piece are very current in 21st century because in the past potters would use local clays that are mined, dug and processed. In our case these days we can get special pure clays called calyns from North Carolina. We can get fire clays that we blend into our clay bodies from Montana. We can get pure porcelain from England. So we can we have a little broader range of materials than potters past. So they're very important because through experimentation you can alter the materials that you incorporate into the clay bodies and the clays and get specific to your own interests results. So I do use some local clays. The local clay that I do use is one out of Massachusetts, Duggan and Sheffield, Massachusetts. That's a red clay, a terracotta. The clay that bricks are made out of, the clay that planters are made out of, throws beautifully and the results are wonderful with it. The way I start a new piece is I start off first by reflecting on the influences I've had since I've addressed that particular form. So maybe I'm more interested in thinking about a new solution to the handle to a cup. So I'll notice handles to cups with I'm in restaurants, friends houses, other potters, pottery sheds. Who knows? But I'll take some idea that that sort of rings true and work through that in a new form. So sometimes I'll do some sketching. Sometimes I'll just reflect about an idea and sort of see what happens in the first few. But when I do get an idea and I find a solution that rings true for me, I'll always work in series. So if it's cups, I might make 20 or 30 cups in a sitting. If it's larger forms, I might make a half dozen or a dozen. But I always work in serious because this way you gain a familiarity with the particular sequence to the making of that piece. And you gain a fluidity through that familiarity. And then what happens is oftentimes a couple of them may take a step beyond the preconception. And so you develop the form or discover new things about it that you may not have preconceived. And that's where the excitement comes into the process. So when I'm throwing a pot and I'm thinking about when and where to apply the pressure to arrive at that finished form. Again, it comes right back to that familiarity, that fluidity that you attain. It's a muscle memory, almost basically the same thing as like if you see a guitarist playing, they're not thinking about exactly where their finger is and how much pressure they're putting at this time. Your mind and your body become attuned to one another and the outcome becomes something that's in the more subconscious realm with the technique. So you kind of get in that zone, you got your muscle memory in action. And, you know, it really does it ties, it's like really brain development, brain sculpting in a way because, you know, just as like if you're if you trip and you start leaning and falling in one direction, your hand or your foot goes out before you can even think of it. Well, same thing with the pottery wheel. If you throw a piece and it starts to wobble or falter in any way, your body immediately responds to correct that without even realizing it was a problem until afterwards. So it's just really like the brain sculpting element is the thing, the muscle memory. I'm not sure it's vibrations, but there's movement in your fingertips. You can sense that when you've gotten the piece to its maximum thinness as the most bulbousness that can handle. You could just sense it in your fingertips that it's about to go down. It's about to give way. It's about to flop or slump. So it's sort of just a feeling that you have for the piece. Yes, I do believe that faith formers can assist folks in developing their faith. I think that the most important aspect from a perspective of a faith former is to keep the whole idea of unconditional love. In mind, I know that the influences that I've had in my life, I could think of my mother in particular. She's always there to listen and she's present in listening. And also sometimes you can see when people are maybe making a mistake or could have made another choice. But that unconditional love component allows for that communication to continue for you to feel comfortable going to that person to share a new idea or maybe a regret or seeking advice. But as soon as there's an aspect of judgment or an aspect of feeling like abandoned or anything along those lines, that communication line ends. And there is no possibility of receiving or giving assistance when that trust bond is lost. So once I have the shape or the body of the vessel completed on the potter's wheel, the next steps will involve seeing the piece through the drying phase. So in some cases like a vase, that would be simply allowing the piece to dry on the shelf. In other cases, like a bowl, the piece would need to be inverted and the tool is used to carve a foot into the piece and some clay is removed in the inside of the bowl so that it has like a turned foot, we call it. And one interesting thing about bowls is that when you throw a bowl, the main focus is the interior, that functional area. I really pay close attention to making sure that, especially the transition between the floor and wall is indistinguishable. It's a continuous form on the interior. So what I found is that, and many potters do, if you focus on that interior functional space of the bowl, the profile and the look of the piece reflects that. And oftentimes it's pleasing to the eye, but the piece never is quite alive, especially when you're making a bowl until you've carved that foot. So they may seem a little heavy, little bottom heavy, little clunky coming off the potter's wheel. But the reason for that is, when you have this breath of the bowl and the walls are coming out, you know, you almost think like an engineer or an architect, you need to leave extra clay toward the foot, otherwise that bowl is going to slop and flop, flop on you, right? So you're only about two thirds there once you're, you know, completed the piece on the wheel. Then you flip it over, take care of that excess clay that you don't need anymore, make a nice transition from the belly to the foot. And then all of a sudden it springs to life, it comes alive, it's complete. So it's, you know, harnessing, you're using time to your advantage. And also the other interesting thing I found about clay is that the various states of the clay allow for different aspects of the making. So when the piece is really wet and floppy, you wouldn't really be able to attach a handle or a spout. But when it's leather hard, once it's firmed up a little bit, it receives that perfectly. It's a little bit more firm, a little firmer leather hard, and you can carve a foot into it. In thinking about making a piece truly functional and speaking to the glazing and firing aspect, for me, the glazing and the firing is what really brings the pieces to life. The firing process on a basic level hardens the clay, vitrifies the clay so that it's durable. It can withstand use and abuse of life. The glazes allow for the piece to be easily cleaned and sanitary and water even more watertight, right? But it also adds the color, the depth, the variation, the life to the pieces. So I've given personally a lot of thought to the glazes that I use and the surface effects that I attain in my work. And I've been particularly drawn to wood firing because I find that it's uniting the forces of nature. God's creation is happening in that pottery kiln. You're taking wood, turning it to fuel, and the ash left from that wood is forming the glazes on the surface of the pieces. And it's not just making a clear glaze over a clay body. It's giving you a broad palette of form, color, texture, and surface crystals, bursts of yellow, bursts of pinkish oranges, grays, metallics. There's so much that happens in there is far beyond what I could ever preconceive. And so that sense of wonder, met, and discovery is something that, you know, it's like it's one of a million clear proofs of God's existence. When you see a piece coming out of the kiln that is like encrusted in crystals and like orange and yellow all over the place and bursts of smoky grays, I could not have, you know, and oftentimes could not have imagined. So every firing is a new step in understanding and discovery and a lesson in humility.