Artist: Jack Troy

Jack Troy, PENNSYLVANIA

View work by Jack Troy

Bio

Jack Troy is an American studio potter and teacher. He has taught at Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, since 1968, where he is now Associate Professor of Art. He is well-known amongst wood-firers and the ceramics community in general and has held numerous workshops and lectures on wood-firing in the US and many other countries.

He is known for his wheel-thrown, wood-fired pottery, which he fires in an anagama kiln. He has also written two popular books - Salt-glazed Ceramics, published in 1977 and Wood-Fired Stoneware and Porcelain, published in 1995. He has also written more than 50 articles in ceramics-related magazines and published a collection of poems, Calling the Planet Home, in 2003.

Jack Troy's specialty is the anagama kiln, a wood-firing tunnel kiln, based on medieval Japanese kilns in Bizen and Shigaraki. Large deposits of wood ash create a natural ash glaze, the main source of decorative effects with wood-fired ware.

His career has taken him to 13 countries, and his work is in many private and public collections, including the Smithsonian Institution, Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park (Japan), Auckland (NZ) Museum of Art and the Kalamazoo Institute of Art.