HendersonKen

About the Artist

I make reproduction redware pottery in the Anglo-American tradition. I trained as a potter at Old Sturbridge Village (1986-1990) and as a result, my strongest focus is toward early 19th century, New England pottery. Whenever possible, my pots are based on artifacts that I have examined personally. I also use photographs of artifacts, archaeological quality line drawings, and period illustrations.

My clay is natural earthenware rather than a manufactured clay body. Pots are wheel-turned, or less frequently, drape or slump molded. All work is done by hand. Nothing is jiggered or ram-pressed. The pots are green-glazed and single fired in glazes designed to look like the historic lead glazes. My glaze is a bright and transparent reddish brown. Added depth and character are achieved by the addition of manganese dioxide, which creates black speckles in the glaze. The glaze is food safe and all of my pottery is totally functional within the context of its historic usage.

Nearly all my pottery is decorated to some degree. The historic decorations I use are either slip trailing, sgraffito in the North Devon tradition, or daubing with manganese dioxide stain. Slip-trailing creates a raised design, while sgraffito creates an incised decoration. In this catalog the pots shown with contrasting yellow lines are slip trailed. Pots shown with blackish variegated spots are decorated with manganese dioxide. Some pots are glazed on the interior only. This is the historic pattern for glaze application on these pots.

I also reproduce a selection of yellow ware decorated in the mottled, tortoise shell glaze associated with Rockingham and Bennington pottery.