Double Jar, 1996

Tom Turner

porcelain, glaze

15.5" H x 10.5" Diameter

This lidded vase by Tom Turner has subtle decoration and a sense of elevation. The overall form invokes a large bubble rising from the base. At the top of the piece, the speckles of brown and green work in tandem with texture in the glaze to create a diamond pattern that dissolves toward the middle of the jar. It is hard not to enjoy the softly rounded forms that Turner has incorporated into this piece. He successfully conveys this idea of a living and breathing object as the jar swells out and in from the top to the center and down towards the bottom.

Artist Biography

Tom Turner is known for a wide range of functional forms. Of these he revisited the covered jar from hundreds of times, perfecting a thin-walled vessel. Up until 1975 Turner worked in both stoneware and porcelain glazed and salt fired. From 1975 onward, Turner worked in porcelain which he glazed and high fired, but after 1976 did not use salt glaze but fired glazed porcelain in an old salt kiln.

While serving in the US Army, he taught ceramics in the Army Special Services where his civilian supervisor introduced him to potters in the area of Columbia, South Carolina. After the Army, Turner set up the Ceramic Arts program at Clemson University College of Architecture, Department of Visual Studies. It is here that he built a small salt glaze research kiln and also where he created his very first "Copper Red Vapor Glaze" on salt-glazed porcelain. He would continue to develop this glaze over several years. In 2005 Turner established his kiln in Marsh Hill, NC to pass on his knowledge. He said of North Carolina, "... it is without doubt, 'The Potter's State."

Donated by the Grainer Family.

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