ORIGINS of ANIMALWARE    

In 1991, with very little clay experience, I took a wood kiln building and firing workshop with potters Will Ruggles and Douglass Rankin at Penland School of Craft in North Carolina. I became enamored with their adaptation of the Leach-Hamada aesthetic and wood firing. Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada were two potters - English and Japanese - working from the 1920’s through 1970’s. They were passionate about reviving traditional handmade craft in the face of industrialization. Will and Douglass opened my eyes to the history of pots and to the liveliness of useful folk pots from all over the world - especially Medieval English wares. It was in that class that I first saw Douglass add animals to pots in the form of knobs on her jar lids.

 I spent six years at Penland School - two of those years as a work study CORE fellowship student and three as a Resident Artist. In 1997, while a Resident, I started Shawn Ireland Pottery as a full time wood fire potter. I left Penland in 1999 and moved to nearby Bakersville where I built a two chambered wood kiln and maintained a studio till 2021.

 I visited Cortona, Italy for the first time in 2005. I immediately fell for the Medieval heritage of Tuscany. I was also introduced to ancient Etruscan culture and all sorts of zoomorphic pots from antiquity. The Etruscans dominated central Italy from the 9th thru 3rd centuries BCE and incorporated animal forms into their pottery. I made loads of sketches in the museums and knew these forms would somehow work into my pots eventually.

I returned annually to Cortona to work for the University of Georgia’s Study Abroad Program as a Visiting Artist Intern and Studio Coordinator between 2006 and 2013. I had access to studios and experimented with making terracotta animal pots fired in electric kilns.

 I’ve always been interested in making functional pots so candle holders, bowls and vases seemed like a good place to start on the Animalware path.