Marni Turkel

Marni Turkel has been making pots for a living for almost 40 years. She founded Stony Point Ceramic Design, a small pottery in Santa Rosa and now specializes in mold making.

In casting, Marni pours slip (liquid clay) into a plaster mold; the mold absorbs water from the slip which leaves a deposit of clay on the plaster. The excess slip is drained from the mold leaving a coating of clay which is the ceramic piece. After the piece is removed from the mold, it is carefully sponged to finish the edges and remove any seam lines. When it is dry, it is bisque fired slowly to a low temperature so that it is strong enough to be handled during the glazing process. She “hand dips” the pieces in a bucket of glaze (using a pair of tongs to hold the piece) rather than the more commercial method of spraying. It gives subtle variations in the glaze that give each piece its own character and are a mark of hand crafted work. After being glazed, each piece is fired a second time to a high temperature, which fuses the glaze and makes the stoneware clay very strong.