David Yager

     I’ve been working with clay for probably half a century. When I was a kid visiting my grandparents in Oregon, I used to dig up clay, bring it home and make things out of it. I went to study business at Washington State University and took a ceramics class for fun. I realized I was spending much more time in the ceramics lab than in business classes, so I changed my major to art.

     One of my early mentors was Michael Lucero, a nationally renowned New York-based ceramics artist, whose work has been featured in the Smithsonian. I was lucky enough to study under Michael at California State University, Chico, as well as under Jack Windsor, who started the CSUC ceramics program and was a master glaze scientist.

     My stoneware is a white, fine-grained clay that is both lightweight and strong, with properties similar to porcelain. I like to make functional pieces—things that are beautiful, but that people can use. I choose to work in high fire, which is more expensive and more difficult but results in highly durable pieces that don’t chip as easily as low-fired clay. I love the idea of people having my work and using it—drinking their morning coffee out of one of my mugs or making a salad in one of my bowls and serving it to their family.

     A favorite part of my work is to experiment, trying new glazes and techniques. I love opening the kiln and seeing how things turned out. I am always striving to do things a little bit better, and a little different. I had been firing a gas kiln for many years before investing in an electric kiln, which affords more precision and control. In the last few years, I’ve been honing my signature “swirly” pieces that use many colorful glazes that have only recently become available at high temperatures, and which characterize much of my current work.

     My wife, Tempra, and I built our home on the Sea Ranch in 2018, complete with a solar array that provides all the energy for the house and firing my kiln.

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