Get to know the artists
Catherine Sabatos
There are many ways you can fire pottery. After starting out with cone 10 gas reduction firings, Catherine Sabatos settled on the long, exhausting, but rewarding wood-fired process. In addition to the look wood firing gives her pieces, it’s the teamwork she appreciates. “We rely on each other to make sure we stoke correctly, monitor the temperature and keep the wood coming.”
But there’s more than that. I“In between the stoking—putting the wood into the firebox to create the heat that fires the pieces—you get the chance to learn about each other. You have nowhere else to be but in that moment. It is hard work but fulfilling,” she said.
Catherine took up pottery back in the 90s, but she has always liked working with her hands. She decided to try pottery because she was looking for something new and doesn’t “mind getting messy.” Her first class was at a recreation center in D. C., but soon after she enrolled in Glen Echo Pottery.
Instructor Jeff Kirk taught her how to throw, and Kanika Sircar gave her the basics of hand building and ignited her interest in surface design. She continues to work with wood-fired potter Tim Sherman who built on her skills. She added that Kevin Crowe taught her how to use her hands as tools.
When Catherine reflected on how her style evolved over the years, she noticed that shape and texture—more than colorful glazes and intricate details—have dominated her work from the beginning. She describes her pieces as quiet; with hidden complexity that reveal themselves, "when you take the time to hold it and observe carefully.” Over the years, her “work has become more refined in the continuity of the shape and the balance of the piece.”
Catherine mainly throws on the wheel, and prefers to make functional pieces: mugs, bowls, vases, and teapots. She sometimes alters the piece by taking it out of the round, and her surface decorations focus on texture and natural characteristics that work well with wood firing. Her goal is to make the perfect teapot where all the pieces work together, but she’ll settle for “a very good one.”
If you are looking to take up pottery, Catherine advises you to enroll in a beginner’s class, and to carve out time to practice because, “it’s harder than it appears.” Most of all, she wants you to enjoy yourself!
Catherine’s work is available for purchase at the Frederick Potters’ Guild Gallery on Market Street and The Station Market & Café on Bentz Street.
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