Jim Wylder
Jim was born in Portland and fell in love with art at an early age. He followed a BFA and MST with a career in teaching art. His middle and high school students kept him busy designing art lessons for thirty-four years. During that time he taught jewelry, printmaking, painting, calligraphy, drawing, and ceramics.
Raku has been Jim’s passion for the last 25 years. This medium satisfies his need for exacting methods and unexpected results. Failure has provided most of the lessons needed for success. His frustrations have also led him to innovate new techniques and tools to simplify processes and improve results.
Naked Raku, Black on Black Raku, and traditional Raku are the three current areas of focus. Each has a different firing temperature and corresponding best form. Recent technical breakthroughs have expanded the possibilities.
Raku has a long pre-firing process. The actual firing of the pottery is a test. There are no guarantees of success so the hours of making are a hit or a miss as the pottery is pulled from the kiln at temperature.
