Potters Market at the Mint
September 27, 2025
Will Dickert Ceramics, Asheville NC
My work is created with a variety of NC-sourced stoneware clays and kaolinic slips and glaze using both handbuilt and wheel- thrown techniques in my Asheville, NC studio. It is then woodfired in an anagama kiln using ever evolving techniques of loading & kiln atmospheres.
My stoneware vessels and tableware are created using a variety of techniques and methods. It is important to me to have within my studio practice a changing and evolving approach and consciousness , either through material, firing or context. For that reason, I create what I consider two complementary and intersecting categories of pots: tableware designed with function, ie, food, drink and service in mind, and larger forms which exist within the context and vocabulary of pots or vessels, but that have three-dimensional form as their primary focal point. I draw influence from a fascination with objects and the act of collecting instilled by my mother, uncles and grandmothers. At the same time, I facilitate and maintain my studio and firing practices through examples led by the work ethic, human relations and engineering backgrounds of my father and grandfathers. I find inspiration and insight for my work through studying space and volume as it relates to architecture and the natural environment and our positions within it. The context of my work is often a response to memory, experience and sentiment. I use this context to create work that is contemporary in design, traditional in technique and reflective of my evolving and varied view of the world around me. I maintain a reverence towards the rich ceramic history of North Carolina and aim to cultivate an aesthetic reflecting the materials I use and the methods used to create them. I have found a satisfying way to convey this motivation through woodfiring my work using a limited pallet of glazes on a more varied array of NC stoneware clays, atmospheres and kiln loading techniques to elicit naturally occurring surfaces.