We were lucky to catch up with Martin Ehrlich recently and have shared our conversation below.

Martin, appreciate you joining us today. One of our favorite things to hear about is stories around the nicest thing someone has done for someone else – what’s the nicest thing someone has ever done for you?

There are two very kind thins that people have done for me related to my art.

1) When I was looking for a specific potters wheel for my studio, I checked online at many different websites and checked with people I knew involved with ceramics. I was having no luck for quite a while. People were wanting crazy prices for the wheel or it was far enough away that the cost of getting a 240 pound wheel to my studio was prohibitive.

I got talking to the local high school ceramics instructor and he said he had an ex-student that had gone on to college and no longer needed her wheel. The family lives within 3 blocks of me so the transport was no problem at all. On top of that they refused to take any payment for the wheel giving it to me for free. One of the first pieces I threw on that wheel that came out nice, I gave to them later as a thank you.

2) I was looking for a raku kiln for my studio and having similar luck to that I had looking for a wheel. I started looking into buying the materials and building the kiln myself. Then an instructor friend of mine who I had done raku with several times in the past told me he had an old cone 10 gas kiln in his garage that he had never been able to get up to temperature and I could have it and see if I could make it work. Short story, it just needed a larger gas line than he had and it works fine. Thank you Tom!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I retired after working for 33 years as a utility Electrical Mechanic and decided to try working with clay at the La Canada Community Center. There with the teaching of the instructors and lots of mentoring from my fellow students that were quite more advanced than I was, I started to get the hang of it.

Most of my work is wheel thrown with a small amount slab built. 75-80% of my pieces are raku fired with the remainder mainly high fire porcelain.

I do a lot of experimentation with different glazes and different design methods.

I am inspired by the world and nature around me and abstract what I see into my work

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

GCC ceramic program. The structure made it necessary to move outside my comfort zone. I had to complete assignment using materials, methodologies and forms that were new and unfamiliar. I learned to mix different glazes from their chemical formulas and modify existing or create new glazes by understanding properties of ingredients and the chemistry of what happens in the kiln I also learned how to fire both electric and gas kilns. I owe much to Richard McColl, Robert Kibler, Jose Salinas and Ryan Flores!

The college environment put me in with an ever changing and evolving group of students with different talents, experiences , ideas and perspectives.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Seeing something that was just an abstract idea in my mind come to fruition. Sometimes a final piece differs from the plan and sometimes it is spot on. Even if it differs from the plan, there can be great surprises in ceramics, such as, wow I did not realize the glaze would do that when it usually does something quite different. This is a very common occurrence in Raku with all the different variables involved.

Contact Info:

• Website: firewaterceramics.com

Image Credits
Martin Ehrlich