Prize-Winning Potter Fired Up About Craft

As Brian Gharst talks about pottery, his fingers talk too.

Sitting in the Central Valley High School pottery room, Gharst explains the basics of his work - the throwing, firing and glazes. All the while, his finger tips whisper along the edge of yesterday’s pot. It’s a large, graceful bowl, dark at the base where the clay is still drying.

He also talks about pricing.

Pricing? Gharst, 18, is a modest but promising potter. He’s advanced so quickly, his teacher Sue Mihalic says, “I’ve taught him all I know. Now, he’s self-taught.”

He’s also every bit the adolescent, with braces, a backwards ballcap and a love for skateboarding, snowboarding and rock climbing.

Gharst has begun to sell his work. A display of his pottery is on exhibit at the district’s central office. One of his pots won a regional high school contest and will be entered in a state contest.

Through Running Start, Gharst hopes to study pottery at Spokane Falls Community College this spring.

Each pot begins as a lump of clay, roughly 6 by 6 by 6 inches. On the throwing wheel, the first challenge is to center it.

“Some days it takes two minutes. Other days, it’s 10 to 20 minutes.”

It all depends on how well his fingers are talking to the clay.

In the throwing process, he’s after delicacy and symmetry.

Gharst will fire this pot at home, where he has built his own kiln. He makes the building process sound simple - a base, a top, some chicken wire for structure, a “ceramic blanket” to keep the intense heat in, a barbecue-type 10-gallon propane tank and “the kind of burner they use for burning weeds.”

The kiln can withstand 2,300 degrees, he says.

Gharst fires up the kiln in his garage, heats the pottery and then when it’s red-hot, cools it in a bucket filled with combustible material - leaves, shredded newspaper or sawdust from the school’s wood shop.

That sends up a column of dense smoke - noticeable enough that Gharst wonders what the neighbors think. After all, he creates five to 10 pots in a week.

Chemicals in the glaze, cobalt, copper and lithium, interact and create blues, reds, cream - with the crazing or crackling that makes some pottery so interesting.

One of Gharst’s next goals is to create a very tall pot by flipping one bowl over and placing it atop another.

His teacher, Mihalic, is clearly impressed with Gharst’s ability.

“It’s a language alright, and one his fingers are fluent in,” she said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo