Throughout the course of her life, Anne Maiden’s family has been influential in her choice of art as a career, hobby and passion. Anne’s mother, father, grandmother and aunts had a hand in her creativity. Her high school art teacher Ed Cebula wisely guided and encouraged her. In college, Anne pursued a Bachelor’s degree in education, following the program in art education and becoming a middle school art teacher. It was in college that Anne developed her love of pottery, often choosing pottery classes over education courses when scheduling.
As she recalls, “I became a professional potter by chance, luck, friends, family and creative ideas. My Aunt Roxanne gave me a kiln. I bought a broken potter’s wheel for $20.00. A friend fixed the wheel and had a pot made within an hour. I received a call from him: ‘Anne, I fixed the wheel and made a pot. Now how do I get it off the wheel?’ He had never made a pot before! We set up shop in his garage and became ‘Claydog Pottery’. The name ‘Claydog’ came about because the dogs were always taking snacks of clay!”
Currently Anne uses the ancient Japanese style firing called “Raku”, originally used to create tea ceremony sets. She combines her love of nature, beading and pottery to create this work. Each piece is handled in some way at least twelve times before it reaches its new home. The pieces are fired in a regular electric kiln first and then fired outdoors in a propane kiln the second time. They are carefully lifted out when red-hot and submerged in a flammable material (newspaper) and the flames quenched. The pieces are then water-cooled, scrubbed and finished. In Raku the artist feels as if she is creating a record of each leaf that is printed in the clay…a sort of man-made fossil! “The spontaneith and variety of Raku firing is always exciting and I will never tire of it!”
At Pear Tree Gallery Anne has a variety of pieces available—small vessels, plaques, bowls, plates and amazing Raku jewelry.
For information on custom work, or to contact the artist call (440) 225-2160.
