About the Artist
Hi! I’m Amy, the artist behind AQ Ceramics. I’m a Registered Dietitian & Food Banker by day, and a ceramic artist by night. Making art has always brought me joy and I love sharing that joy with others through my craft. You can find my pieces at local Nashville businesses such as Dozen Bakery and at local Artisan Markets throughout the year.
AQ Ceramics started in March of 2024 after over a year of spending hours at the pottery studio each week taking classes and creating hundreds of ceramics pieces to nail down my “style”.
My art is light hearted & whimsical. As a Registered Dietitian, I love food and have a special focus to my art that highlights its beauty. I love using underglazes, sgraffito techniques, and my own hand-tinted pastels to make my wares special and bring a spark of color in your everyday routine. You can find plenty of wares to house your morning coffee, to drink your Summer lemonade, to easily pour oil out of to cook your favorite meals, and much more!
The pottery process
Let’s say you want a piece of pottery commissioned or perhaps you’ve bought a piece already - what does it take for it to get to its final form? A LOT! Every pot goes through a lengthy production/manufacturing process that doesn’t include the time spent planning, creating prototypes, taking classes/learning, etc.
1. Using a lump of clay, I weigh it then wedge it. Wedging it gets out air bubbles and weighing it ensures I can throw consistently sized items.
2. On a wheel I “throw” the clay and shape it to my desired form. This can take anywhere from 5 minutes to 45 minutes depending on the size of the item.
3. Once I’ve thrown the piece, I cut it off the wheel, and set it aside to get “leather hard”. This can take a couple of hours to a couple of days.
4. Once the piece is leather hard, I put it back on the wheel and trim the piece. This ensures each piece feels nicely weighted (no one likes a heavy pot!) and the piece has a clean look.
5. If I’m making mugs or pieces with additional attachments, I add those next. Each attachment is “scored and slipped”, attached, then cleaned up.
6. Next I like to underglaze my pots - these are clay paints! Once I’ve underglazed them, I’ll either use a special tool to sgraffito them (carve outlines in the shapes) OR I’ll leave them as is. This process can take up to 1.5 hours per pot. After this, I’ll set the pots aside to get “bone dry”, which takes about 2 days.
7. Once the pots are bone dry, they’re ready for their first fire. Pottery is usually fired in the kiln twice. The first fire is the “bisque fire”. The pots spend the next 24 hours in the kiln and are fired to 1900F.
8. After the bisque fire, the pots are ready to be glazed! I use clear glaze and my own hand tinted pastels to glaze my pots.
9. Once the pots are glazed, they’re ready to go back in the kiln for their second and final fire, or the “glaze fire”. The pots spend the next 24 hours in the kiln and are fired to 2200F.
10. The very last step of the process is sanding your bottoms! No one wants a piece of pottery to scratch their furniture or them. This part ensures each pot has a smooth bottom and is ready to go to its new home!
Total time - 3-5 weeks to get a final product
