Ray, Paul

Ray Pottery is located in the heart of pottery country in Star, North Carolina. Paul has created beautiful handcrafted pieces since 1997, with the goal of enhancing the celebration of daily life and enriching its simple joys. The work is either thrown on a potters’ wheel, slab built, or extruded. It is then fired in a propane kiln to 2350 degrees Fahrenheit. Glazes are applied by a combination of dipping and spraying. A selection of the stoneware glazes include: Ash Glaze – Known for its subtle colors and mottled surface effects, ash glazes are the first to be formulated by Chinese potters. Ray uses pine and oak ashes, collected from a wood burning kiln. Copper Red – Copper red is achieved by adding a small amount of copper carbonate (usually .25% to .5%) along with tin oxide to a glaze and then firing it in a reducing atmosphere. Copper reds were first developed by Chinese potters over 1000 years ago and were commonly referred to as “oxblood.”