Artisans at Work:

FEATURED ARTIST: Will McCanless

Will McCanless is the middle son of Al and Milly McCanless, and came to work with them at Dover Pottery in the early spring of 1993. Will took a keen interest in design and decoration at Dover Pottery, and after three years of improving his brushwork, decided to study Italian maiolica in Italy's oldest and most prestigious maiolica centers. Will spent a good bit of time in Rome, Venice, Florence, and Milan. He later visited Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, Malaysia, Great Britain, Paris and Marseille in his studies.

Today Will continues to paint and design, and is active in many of the shops tasks. Of particular pride to Will is the current excellence of Dover Pottery's zinc silicate crystalline glaze. He has played a major role in refining it since 1999.

Crystalline has surely become the "tour de force" at Dover Pottery. Crystalline is probably the most challenging glaze to reproduce consistently, but it is a sort of ‘superstar’ of ceramics. People exposed to it for the first time are often amazed by it’s crystalline pattern structures.

To understand the crystalline process more fully, please read this article, which originally appeared in the Longleaf Journal, written by Al McCanless.

You can visit Dover Pottery at: www.doverpots.com.