Martha L. Cofran

Working in porcelain, I create one-of-a-kind functional pottery with elegant shapes and with surface designs that try to achieve a balance between positive and negative spaces, light and dark colors, and curved and straight lines. Although I occasionally make more traditional surfaces, my current work most often combines my love of pottery with mandalas and dot painting.

A mandala, which is Sanskrit for circle, is a geometric design that holds a great deal of symbolism in Hindu and Buddhist cultures, representing the circle of life. Mandalas are typically drawn on a surface with threads, fashioned in bronze, or built in stone.

Each of my pieces is wheel-thrown and hand-carved using either the sgraffito technique (carving through a colored layer to show the clay color underneath) or the mishima technique (inlaying color into carved lines). It is then hand-painted before undergoing a final glaze firing. In the September/October, 2020 issue, Pottery Making Illustrated published an article I wrote titled “Functional Mandalas” that details the entire process.

The surfaces I’m able to create using such processes are both enduring and beautiful.