Jim Neupert - All Fired Up
by Marcy Stamper
It all started with a four-foot wall mural and a sculptural birdbath. These were the first pieces ceramic artist Jim Neupert ever made, created for a graduate seminar in architectural ceramics when he was a college freshman who had never before handled clay.
He became so enamored with the medium that he enrolled in the next course he could find, another advanced-level course in throwing pots on the wheel. Neupert soon filled out his schedule with the complete art curriculum but, in his senior year, with a full complement of credits as an art major, he panicked, afraid he |
 Neupert adds fruits in an adaptation of the saggar firing process, placing a pot in a container packed with oranges and bananas along with charcoal and iron sulfate. When they vaporize, the fruits and minerals deposit flashes of color on the clay. (In traditional saggar firing, the pot is encased in a container to protect the glaze from becoming tarnished by fly ash.)
In raku firing, Neupert achieves an iridescent copper and blue luster by subjecting the pots to intense and rapid heating and cooling. He also uses the raku process to make ceramic fish that shimmer as if underwater.
Another technique involves throwing rock salt at the clay while it is at a high temperature, resulting in an exquisite glass-like surface flecked with black and silver.
All these techniques allow Neupert to indulge his passion for texture and surface decoration. |
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These one-of-a-kind pieces stretch his creativity and technique, but Neupert said he would not want to focus exclusively on sculptural ceramics.
Creating functional pottery is very satisfying for him, and the process of throwing on the wheel is very meditative. |
