Maya Machin, Ashfield, MA
Maya Machin grew up on a homestead in Vermont, which instilled in her a backbone of function and utility that is reflected in each piece she makes, however fanciful its form. Maya uses wild and local materials in some of her slips and glazes including wood ash and clay dug right out of the ground. She throws her pots on the wheel from white stoneware and fires it to cone 10 in a wood-burning kiln for approximately 18 hours. Wood-firing allows Maya to be physically engaged in the firing process but at the same time, forces her to give up control and realize that the fire will do what it wants at the end of the day. The elements of surprise, unpredictability, and variation add richness to Maya’s pots that the hand alone could not create.
More than anything else, Maya draws inspiration from the fact that the pot she is forming by hand has the potential to become an intimate part of someone’s daily routine - bringing joy and purpose to daily activities that can easily become mundane.
