Willi Eggerman

Mingling whimsy, structure, and gesture in my clay work, I make functional sculpture. I employ personalized botanical designs in my work by carving, slip trailing, or impressing them into the clay. Similar patterns have ornamented ceramics from every continent for centuries as motifs and borders. These shapes and patterns lend a comfortable familiarity to my work. Growth, seeding, dormancy, and rebirth are metaphors for our stages of life. Each flower or leaf, however perfect in its conformity to the patterns of its family, genus and species has a personality created by the forces of wind, water and sun it has endured. Likewise, I want my art to be part of a family of work, while maintaining individuality. I want every teapot or pouring piece to have unique posture and attitude. The specific enjoyment of solving functional issues and providing a physical interaction with the user sustains my interest in making functional pottery.

The seed pod has special appeal to me as a symbol of women, and specifically motherhood. I view seed pods as small sculptures, performance art even, as they form, swell, open, and eventually disintegrate. They are beautiful, strong, and very practical in getting their job accomplished. The female form appears in my work, stemming from an admiration of these qualities.

The plasticity of clay allows me to stretch it, creating curvaceous volumes from patterned clay slabs or wheel thrown segments. I'm continually exploring texture through ordered pattern and the patinas of glaze effects. By using high firing techniques with porcelain and stoneware clays, I find the balance in durability and light weight I'm looking for in my usable sculpture.

email:  weggerman@comcast.net
website: willieggerman.com