Tom Coleman

Michael Sherrill began his career throwing functional work in traditional forms using traditional glazes. He went on to make a large body of non-functional work based on the bottle form which led to exploring botanical suclptures completed in mixed media.

These pieces began Sherrill?s exploration into the possibilities of surface manipulation and glazes which led to the multi-layered glaze technique used in conjunction with post-firing sandblasting.

Sherrill considers himself a materials-based artist experimenting primarily in the media of clay but also metal and glass. Sherrill states, ?I started using my extruder to extrude tubes and then pull tapered, long spouts for my sculptural teapots. My involvement in using an extruder has totally changed my thinking about it as a tool. It widened my view of what I can do with clay. Instead of the extruder being a static tool, just to make an object, I now see it as a workstation like a potter's wheel. It is a place to make and manipulate forms. This is the thing I would like to communicate and share with others. These techniques can open up new possibilities for anyone working in clay.?

Sherrill created a large series of abstracted teapots composed of extruded forms. These pieces were transitional and led to his next series of plant forms referencing both nature and imagination. To produce this new body of work Sherrill expanded his expertise to include metal and glass. He first mastered the art of metal forging which allowed Sherrill to use bronze elements as the structures to hold and display the whitestoneware flowers and leaves. These multicolored ceramic botanicals required as many as 4 firings and a process of layering and removing color. Next, he looked to glass lampwork to create the glittery small parts of the flowers. The inspiration for these sculptures comes from his rural environment in the mountains of North Carolina.

Sherrill is the creator of Mudtools, a company born out of a need to create innovative clay tools for himself.