Lakeshore inspires area artists

A half-formed moist lump of clay whirled on the potter’s wheel in Dave Martin’s Manitowoc studio. He invited me to sit in his chair, then pointed to the view just outside his window.

“That’s what I was talking about,” he said. “See that?”

Across Memorial Drive, Lake Michigan glittered, the intensity of the water’s sparkle a silver glare in the midday sun. The beauty inspires – and sometimes distracts – Martin, who also keeps small jars of beach sand to incorporate into some of his pieces.

Martin’s owned this shop for the last four years, but his fascination with clay goes back 40 years – it’s been a part of his life in one form or another, taking shape in hundreds and hundreds of bowls, vases and mugs.

“Making pots is like a musical instrument. I sit at the wheel and it’s like sitting at the piano – here’s my song,” Martin said, indicating shelves of cobalt-ringed pots in his studio.

The melody that arises is rich in variety – Martin’s “Shoreline” series features gracefully bending grasses painted on vases; other plates have delicate, spidery veins of deep azure and jade, and one small marbleware pot has thin brown sugar bands swirling up into sky-blue stripes, a gentle windstorm on clay.

There’s also some science involved, with Martin mixing up his own glazes in 50,000-gram batches in plastic garbage cans, all the better to control quality and chemical balance. Once fired, the glaze turns molten on the clay’s surface – what begins as a barely-noticeable application of glaze turns to rich, sparkling undertones after a stint in the 2,300-degree kiln.

One small pot – a deep blue under the glare of the workshop lights – radiated when Martin let sunlight fall on its surface.

It’s the different minerals in the glaze,” he said by way of explaining the dancing flecks of green and purple undertones. “It’s a black temmoku glaze that does that.”

Martin dots the walls of his workshop with scraps of paper bearing uplifting messages, and those vibes find their way into his pottery. Themes are revisited years later, tweaked to reflect his current outlook, and new variations – updated agateware with bands of porcelain and clay a fresh perspective.