Ceramic Bead Artists -- Colleen Harmon

Working with clay has always been a deeply personal experience for me. When I create my ceramic pieces, I try to infuse in them the joy and peace I feel in doing something that I love. I really enjoy working with raw clay and transforming it into something beautiful. Although, I think glazing is probably my favorite part of the whole creative process. When I open my kiln after a glaze firing, I feel like a kid on Christmas morning. I get so excited to see what my work has become. The before and after of a piece in that stage is always amazing to me; even though I have a pretty good idea of how each piece will look. The slight differences are what I love to see. However, the way a piece of jewelry takes shape with one of my ceramic pieces as a part of it is amazing to me as well; especially when beads are involved.

My process for creating the ceramic pieces I transform into jewelry is fairly simple. I find things like buttons or charms and I make an impression in a piece of clay. I will also carve designs into a piece of clay. These pieces are then fired and when they come out of the kiln I use them as my "stamps". I use them to impress designs into the clay, but with the texture raised. This allows the glaze to flow over the designs rather than sinking into them and obscuring the detail. When I glaze my pieces, I will usually wipe away some of the glaze to reveal more of the texture. At this point, I use what I have created to make wearable art.