Thomas Perry
Retired from a career as an engineering and technology manager, Thomas Perry has turned a passion hobby into a second career. Thomas creates functional stoneware and porcelain pottery utilizing both wheelthrowing and handbuilding techniques. He was an artist-in-residence at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft in 2004 and, in 2007, received the first-place award in the Amarillo Museum of Art Clay Biennial and the third-place award in the ClayHouston-Hanson Galleries members exhibition. He taught pottery to teenage cancer patients and their siblings during a Texas Childrens Hospital summer camp, volunteers as a docent at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, and is a co-founder and active member of Empty Bowls Houston and ClayHouston.
"It is my objective to create pots that through their use, whether tea cup, salad bowl, lemonade pitcher, or flower vase, add spirit and pleasure to one's life. I use white stoneware and porcelain clays because they produce smooth surfaces and respond well to color. I often mix colorants into the clay to integrate layered and patterned color combinations with the wheelthrowing and handbuilding processes. Carving into the swirling colored surface of wheelthrown vessels, for example, exposes variegated patterns resembling wood grain, agate cores, even Rohrshach tests, while stretching during handbuilding distorts and expands original patterns into new designs. The result is always a surprise."
