Joseph Sand (NC, b. 1982), Impressive Large Floor Vessel with Blue Glaze

Randleman, North Carolina, salt glazed stoneware, stamped "14 /JSS" near the base, tall tapering cylindrical form with flared neck, featuring a lovely iridescent streaky blue glaze mingling with ash.

57 3/4 x 30 x 30 in.

Private Collection, Raleigh, North Carolina

Joseph Sand is a North Carolina based ceramics artist, who settled in Randleman, North Carolina where he built his own pottery studio and store. Joseph's work combines the styles of traditional, Southern alkaline glaze ware and East Asian design, among others. Joseph uses locally dug clay bodies and select local clays for glazes to produce both salt- and ash-glazed wares. His pottery wares range in size from very large sculptures and planters, to a variety of beautiful, functional tableware, all of which he fires in his own 40-foot-long, 8-foot-wide wood-fired anagama style kiln.

Joseph was born in 1982 and raised outside the small, southern Minnesota town of Austin. He studied at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. In 2006, he earned a BFA in general studio art with a ceramics emphasis. Prior to graduating college, Joseph studied art for one year in Cortona, Italy, through the University of Georgia-Athens. It was there that he sat at a pottery kick wheel in a 12th-century building and knew instinctively how to center clay. His future career was born. Through the advice of a fellow potter, Joseph would soon connect with Mark Hewitt, master potter in Pittsboro, North Carolina, which led to a three and a half year apprenticeship with Mark.

"Because of my training with Mark, who is originally from England, I learned how to create functional pottery in the English tradition, including incorporating the fluid, slip-trailed lines and rounded form I admire. My work has also been influenced through my exploration of the South’s historic alkaline and salt-glazed pottery as well as colorful glazes. My glaze experimentation relates directly to my love of nature, reminding me of the diverse properties of the elements."

Good estate condition; some light surface soiling from outdoor use.