ClayHearts Pottery
By Ann Feldmeir
Ann Feldmeir Ann has been a participant at the Gruene Market Days for several years. She has been making pots for fifty years, beginning as an apprentice outside of Taos then a Fine Arts graduate of NAU in Flagstaff. After establishing ClayHearts Pottery in Austin, she moved her home and studio to Wimberley in the Texas Hill Country. While continuing to exhibit in some galleries and shops, she began to travel to participate in juried art shows in multiple states. Meeting the many different people who connect with her art work continues to inspire her and feed her creative ideas.
Ann hand builds functional art pottery using an earthenware clay that she personally makes, creating usable food-safe pots more durable than traditional earthenware from Italy or Mexico. Ann hand builds each piece, pinching coils and rolling out slabs that she can drape over shapes, slice then reassemble, pinching, paddling and scraping into the form that she desires. But she is always aware of the function of the piece so lids fit and pitchers don’t dribble. Like most artisans, Ann employs the technical knowledge gained from years of practicing her craft to create whatever she can imagine in a dream or in the clay itself.
So sometimes these organic forms need feet or a nose or a grin. It makes her laugh when they come out of the kiln, with their own personality.
The soft glaze colors she makes along with a few bright commercial colors are all food safe. They are painted over a white glaze using calligraphy brushes then the painted piece is dipped in a clear glaze.
In the high heat of the kiln, colors intensify, glazes bond to the clay. The finished pot is a marriage of art and craft unique to my hand and vision.
