Married with two children and four grandchildren, she did not pursue her hobby until after retirement some fourteen years ago. Her work includes a variety of wheel thrown and hand sculpture pottery. Hand sculpture crabs are her signature. Each piece is hand crafted at her home in Washington, NC.
Her work has progress thru workshops with Dan Finch, master potter, and most recent in Italy. She exhibits yearly at the East Carolina Wildfowl Festival and North Carolina Decoy Carving Championship in Washington, NC. Diane’s work can be seen along the coast of North Carolina, as well a Raleigh, NC.
She works with stoneware, raku, and porcelain clay, while using a variety of firing temperatures and methods to produce different effects.
POTTERY FIRED IN REDUCTION
At the present time all pottery at SEASIDE ART GALLERY is lead free, easy to clean, and is safe to use in the microwave, oven, refrigerator, freezer and dishwasher. Thermal shock, sudden extreme changes in temperature, can cause pottery to crack or break. Never place pottery over direct heat or flame, nor put a pot taken directly from the refrigerator of freezer into a heated oven. Preheating with hot tap water or putting in a cold oven is recommended.
Pottery is bisque fired, glazed, and then fired in reduction to a temperature of 2300F. CRYSTALLINE Each piece is hand thrown porcelain that is glazed with a mixture from dry ingredients that produce the crystals. Different metal oxides are added to give the varying colors. Before the piece is fired, a catch basin is glued to the bottom of the piece to capture runoff. After the pieces are fired to a top temperature of 2350F, it is then lowered and held to allow the crystals to grow. After the pieces cooled to room temperature, the pieces must have the catch basins removed from the base. The crystals vary in size, location, number and color from firing to firing. RAKU Pieces are placed into a kiln and heated to the glaze melting point from 1650 to 1830 degree F. They are removed while hot, placed in a container with combustible material, which flames up around the pot, and sealed. The reduction also causes the clay body to turn black. Because of the firing method, these vessels are not food safe and not recommended for liquids.
Diane Lee is a Beaufort County native potter. Much of her work reflects memories of her youth along the Pamlico River near Bath and later on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
