Made with a Bailey Interview featuring Michele Quan / MQuan Studio

Made with a Bailey Interview featuring Michele Quan

How did you begin working with clay?

It’s a rambling of events & studios. In 1990 I took a wheel throwing class at the 92^nd Street Y. It was there some potter fantasy idea was planted but I went on to spend the next twelve years making jewelry. Towards the end of that time when I was pregnant, I found another ceramics class at Adrienne Yurick’s Third Ave Clay, spending every Saturday making pinch pots.

When my daughter was 14 months old, I signed up for a class at Greenwich House Pottery in the West Village. For the next three years I took a lot of classes and spent many hours during open studio time learning from all the amazing teachers and students/artists that work there.

In 2008 I took the big leap and rented a small space in Arnie Zimmerman’s Brooklyn studio. I called it Macho Studios- it was an old brick building, my studio was unheated, and the water was down a long flight of stairs that Arnie built. He loved working on his building and moving stuff around with his old stinky forklift. He lifted me once (!!) to put something up high on a ledge. I LOVED going there every day. It was there I began to learn how to fire a gas kiln and all the ins and outs of making a functioning ceramic studio. When the building was sold, I moved into the New Clay Studio in Gowanus. It had heat, air conditioning, skylights, and a drain in the floor! I called it The Princess Studio. And now I’m here, upstate NY.

Visiting all these places and people in my mind is a joy.

What inspires the bold surfaces you create on your pieces?

Visual symbols are a continuous inspiration for me. I am drawn to the stone-quality of clay, so I try not to cover that up with glaze. I feel like I am always painting rocks, trying to tell stories.

Can you tell us about your Bailey equipment and how it helps you create your work?

I am surrounded by Bailey equipment! Gas & Electric kilns, Pugger/Mixer, Extruder, Slab Roller, Wedging Table, shelves, shelves, and more shelves.

Do you have a favorite part of the ceramic process?

In the studio the other day I was pugging clay, thinking “Damn, I love pugging.” I like physical labor. Making, painting, loading kilns, firing and of course un-loading is always exciting. My Bailey gas kiln rocks. I learned to fire in a gas kiln that would stall out at cone 6-8. I spent many a night in the wee hours of winter sitting in an unheated studio by the kiln waiting for it to get to temperature.

Reading and diving into what I want to make and why is also great source of pleasure. As is the creative aspect of running a business and all the general studio organization. I think I would make a great studio manager. I like to organize.

How has your body of work changed over time?

When I look back at photos of my first ceramic show at Love Adorned on Elizabeth Street- all the seeds are there. Nothing has really changed; it has all just evolved. Once you find your thread it’s an endless source of inspiration. You just keep pulling it and it grows as it unfolds.