Harold Hart

On a trip to Japan, I visited a pottery where a professional centered and opened some clay and said, "play... make a bowl", which would then be finished, glazed, and sent home as a souvenir. It was the first time I felt moist clay, and it was instant love. That fall I became a student at the Guild, took classes, became a visiting potter, and have been a Guild member since 1980.

My early thrown pieces were a bit heavy, so I incised patterns on them to decorate and lighten them; I grew to enjoy the incising, and though my pots are much lighter, I still do quite a bit of that. I work in both stoneware and porcelain, and make either wheel-thrown functional pieces or tiles and other decorative mounted and framed wall pieces.