Tom Jaszczak
Minnesota

Soda fired, red earthenware, cone 2
Functional
10.25"w x 5"l x 9"h

About the Teapot
Wheel-thrown and altered, with hand-built parts.

About the Artist
Originally from Minnesota, Tom received a BA in Visual Art and a BS in Biology with a minor in Chemistry from Bemidji State University. He was a summer resident and a long-term resident at the Archie Bray Foundation. In the fall of 2015, Tom began a 3-year residency with his wife, Maggie Jaszczak, at the Penland School of Craft. In 2018, Tom and Maggie put down permanent roots in Shafer, MN, where they live in a farmhouse and work in a barn-style studio. Tom has received several awards and honors, including a Jerome Projects Grant, ECRAC Essential Artist Award, Emerging Artist Award through NCECA, as well as Ceramics Monthly, Lincoln and Lil Street Fellowships through the Archie Bray Foundation, and in the summer of 2014, Tom was an Honored Maker at the Maker’s Faire at the White House in Washington, D.C. under the Obama presidency. Tom’s current body of work comprises a range of red earthenware pots that explore minimalism and are finished with an experimental surface solution, fired to cone 2 in a soda-fired atmosphere.

Artist Statement
My pots are minimal but show depth and richness through this materiality – first, with the scrapes, small pits, and ruggedness of the red brick-like clay I use; then with a layer of poured slip, which adds fluidity, and a rich depth in surface picked up both from the iron clay underneath, and the spontaneity of the atmospheric soda firing in which I fire my work. Finally, a bright, flat, decorative element, painted with underglaze, sits in the foreground, and often gives the pot a sense of orientation. This cumulative journey of the pot tells a story, and the story brings the user into the moment of making and firing. Slips, trimming lines, finger marks, edges, wad marks, drips, scratches, and shadows capture a moment in time and tell more of the story.

*Teapots that are purchased will remain on display in the gallery for the duration of the exhibition, through September 14, 2026.
After the show closes, teapots will be carefully packed and shipped by September 28, or they may be picked up at the gallery.

National Teapot Show XIII

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Tom Jaszczak - Diamond Teapot