Potter crafts her vases, bowls in practical mold

Megan Evans has loved clay for a long time.

She admits it runs her life. There's always a piece to "throw," a bowl to carve or a vase to fire in the kiln. The clay never stops, never waits and always does what it wants.

And, no matter how many orders she might be working on for one gallery or another, she often opens the kiln in her basement studio at home to a complete surprise. Much like Forrest Gump's adage about life and a box of chocolates, with clay, you never know what you're gonna get.

Despite the hard work, Evans is in heaven lately. Her work has been shown in more than 25 galleries all over the U.S. Business is booming at ARTFX, the Annapolis gallery she and her husband, Erik, own on West Street. And, this month, a TV crew from HGTV's That's Clever! will be coming to Annapolis to tape her for at least six hours. The show will be broadcast in several months.

"To me, it's not even work - it's my passion," said Evans, 32, a native of Hudson, Ohio, who lives in Annapolis.

She was busy preparing for the crew Wednesday afternoon by making several pieces from her "Tactile Sensations" series at various stages in the process.

Because finishing one piece can take more than a month, Evans had to have the same piece ready for taping at each phase: molding the clay on a spinning wheel (dubbed "throwing" by potters), carving out the intricate designs in the "Tactile" line, firing it in the kiln and then dipping it in the lush green glaze she took 3 1/2 months to mix herself. She then fired it one last time.

Lisa Insana, a producer for That's Clever! who helped select Evans, said the producers always consider two issues when choosing a subject: first, the quality of the artwork, and second, the artist's personality and ability to talk about the craft and how he or she came into it.

"Her style was different than many we've featured before," Insana said. "Her work had a unique look to it. It's really the carving she does there that really got our attention."

And, when it comes to personality: "It was immediate. When I spoke to her, she was very outgoing and had a very pleasant demeanor. I had a feeling she would work well for us."

Throwing a pot Wednesday, Evans sat in front of the wheel, her left foot on a pedal controlling the speed at which the clay spins. First dipping her hands in water to lubricate the clay, she leaned over her right knee, molded the 3-pound hunk into a cylinder, and then steadily "pulled" it, raising the cylinder several inches. Her left hand was stuck inside the cylinder at a right angle, her right hand on the outside to steady the mold.

Evans listened to Ella Fitzgerald as she worked, sometimes setting out to do a bowl and winding up with a vase. It used to take longer, but now she can throw a piece in 10 minutes. She feels her way through it, knowing just how much to push, how much to pull and how to throw in little signatures, small touches that really make something hers.

Although she is proud to call herself an artist, she has more of a workaday approach to pottery. There is no back story, she says, no esoteric statements about the human condition that she wants to jump out.

"I just sit down and say, `I want to make 10 bowls,' and then I do it," she said. "One thing people like about my stuff is that it's functional. They can use it, and then they can also look at it and see that it's beautiful."

Evans graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 1997 and worked as a graphic artist until 2001, when she got married. She always loved pottery, but it was a part-time affair before then, as she worked nights in the studio and displayed her work at shows on the weekend. Erik, who has a small business background, persuaded her to be a full-time artist.

"She was already an artist when I met her," said Erik, 36. "It was an easy decision to make. I knew the business end, she knew the art end, so we could be complete by putting the two heads together."[e-mail]