Mockingbird Pottery
was founded in 1994 when potter Mike Henshaw built a Japanese-style
noborigama wood kiln in rural southwest Georgia. Using a modified
plan of Will Rugle’s and Douglass Rankin’s, the kiln
was designed to burn cast-off wood scraps from local sawmills. The
kiln reaches stoneware temperatures of 2250 degrees F in 18 to 24
hours. The fuel is a mix of southern yellow pine and local hardwoods.
The pots themselves are high-temperature stoneware—food-safe,
dishwasher-safe and microwaveable. Clay and glazes are mixed by
hand and formed either on a foot-powered wheel-- or by assembling
slabs.
“My studio in Southwest Georgia is probably one of the few
potteries in the United States that has no electricity or running
water. Based on the rural Japanese potteries of the 17th and 18th
centuries, my kiln-side studio is truly primitive—and I hope
that spirit of simplicity carries into my pots. I have parted with
the old ways, however, with the use of a modern chainsaw and a pair
of Coleman lanterns.”
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