Jonathan Walburg – Red Lodge Clay Center

Jonathan WalburgWashburn, Wisconsin


Red Lodge Clay Center – Short-Term Resident  2023

My techniques and methods are influenced by my apprenticeship at St. John’s Pottery in Minnesota (2004-06) under Richard Bresnahan, studies in Karatsu, Japan (2006-10) and in Ulsan, Korea (2010).

These experiences nurtured a love of clay, the use of local materials, clay history, and wood-kilns. I create on a Japanese-style wooden kick wheel and processes local clays and ashes for pottery use just south of Bayfield in Washburn, WI.

Throughout my travels and studies in Japan and Korea, I collected pottery and shards. I felt like I was taking home a piece of that place.
I loved this Idea and wanted to share in this experience.

A piece of here on your table.
Flavor of the area.

I use beach-sand from the South Shores of Lake Superior mixed into porcelain. This creates random black spots from the iron-rich sand. The local clay is also iron-rich and is mixed into the clay or glaze creating rich dark greens, reds, browns and blacks. I make traditional ash-glazes from local Maple and Oak trees.