My clay experience began informally over twenty-four years ago with a pottery class at the Virginia Museum of Art.
My knowledge has continued to be informal and largely self-taught through reading,
experimentation, interaction with other potters, workshops, and very much from teaching others in the way of clay.
My work encompasses many extremes including those of surface texture, firing temperature,
firing method and decorating technique.
Within reason, clay allows these extremes, and its nature allows it to be manipulated,
formed and surfaced in a multitude of ways.
It often responds with surprising results to the variables and nuances of the fire
and sends me in pursuit of new colors and effects.
Every firing is an adventure leading to new designs and techniques.
I love the way that clay only hints at what may be, leaving it to me, the potter,
to discover the keys that will unlock the secrets that it holds.
It is this process of observation, experimentation and discovery that makes working in this medium so exciting.
It is my hope that you will receive as much enjoyment
and pleasure from my works as I have experienced in making them.
Edge Barnes is a Raleigh native working as a full time potter and clay artist.
His primary work is in highly burnished and polished stoneware pieces
which are marked with carbon from burning feathers and horse hair,
or by firing with organic and metallic materials to produce subtle coloration and markings of the fire.
He also produces functional stoneware and decorative wood-fired pieces.
His latest pursuit is the development of crystalline glazes on porcelain orbs and vessels.
