Chad Steve

Each piece is individually wheel thrown with fine porcelain then decorated with a combination of slip and gathered sands. After bisque, each piece is lightly glazed and high fired in an atmospheric soda firing.  The forms are simple and effortlessly functional, uncomplicated and approachable. The surfaces are spontaneous with natural variations transitioning between land and water. As a result the wares are beautiful and sophisticated.

As a maker, its not just the process of making that brings me joy but the understanding that my work can become a part of somebody’s home and life. I feel very lucky to have the opportunity to connect with people through making, and through the pots themselves.

Thank you, I hope you enjoy.

Each piece is individually wheel thrown with fine porcelain then decorated with a combination of slip and gathered sands. After bisque, each piece is lightly glazed and high fired in an atmospheric soda firing.  The forms are simple and effortlessly functional, uncomplicated and approachable. The surfaces are spontaneous with natural variations transitioning between land and water. As a result the wares are beautiful and sophisticated.

As a maker, its not just the process of making that brings me joy but the understanding that my work can become a part of somebody’s home and life. I feel very lucky to have the opportunity to connect with people through making, and through the pots themselves.

Thank you, I hope you enjoy.

When I first encounter an object that I am not completely familiar with, it generates many questions. First, what is it? If that question is not immediately answered, I begin searching my archived experiences for things that may relate. What does it remind me of? How is it used? What does it do? How does it do it? These fundamental questions stimulate my pursuit of discovering objects. Memories of similar objects emerge from my past and in an attempt to interpret the function. Experiences such as these make me question how others would perceive objects as well.

Form is a critical device of discovery in my work. Rather than adhering to the phrase coined by Louis Sullivan that “form follows function,” instead, I pursue ‘function follows form’.  This new mantra provokes the concept of function from the opposite perspective. In this way the form provides a generative questioning of purpose. The sculpture’s form suggests functional associations based on the viewer’s individual backgrounds and experiences.

The surface reveals a lot about my objects—how they were finished, how they were made, where they have been, how old they are, and how they were cared for. My ceramic surfaces are intended to make the objects look as though they had been well used and then abandoned. Worn, chipped, and saturated with stains the forms have a patina of apparent use that serves to unify the overall sense of a memory captured in time.

My work celebrates the questioning of objects and the rediscovering of moments in the past. I am driven by the desire to bring life out of a material so that the objects I create somehow have a presence that reaches out to others.