Tombware began as an idea many years twenty years ago. I wanted to make work that reflected my interest in the pre-Columbian ceramics effigy vessels of Peru and Ecuador that were found in ritual burial sites, tombs. I thought I would start with my own menagerie of creatures, birds and animals that I had affection and affinity for. Woodpeckers and Herons are what I started with and then worked with the idea of shelter and houses. I really liked the idea of double vessels too, decided to work on a larger scale in porcelain, and of course wood fired. I called them North Coast Ghost vessels as a series. The double vessels were a bit of a nightmare to fire without cracking and I have not made them in a while. I continue to make effigy vessels.
