Featuring wheel thrown Raku, pit, and woodfired pottery by Shirley Cadmus of Semora, North Carolina. I hesitate to call my work ?pottery?, as that usually refers to functional ware. Creating one-of-a-kind pieces, I feel a great deal of satisfaction giving life to formless clay.

Nature is very important to me. I often knead various sands into the clay that have been collected during my travels or brought back to me by friends or relatives. Glass filaments, colored mica, and lava are sometimes placed around rims before glaze firing. All of my wood-fired glazes contain ashes from Mt. St. Helen?s volcano mixed in as part of the recipe.

I also work tiny copper filaments into clay and glazes. The gold glaze contains silver nitrate among other things. It was developed as a tribute to a dear friend named Goldie who died of cancer. In the reduction phase of Raku firing, I have recently been experimenting with Spanish moss and various seaweeds.