Tales of a Red Clay Rambler: A pottery and ceramic art podcast · Ben Carter

Susan Dewsnap on using wax resist in surface design

·45 min·4 clips

Susan Dewsnap discovered ceramics after painting still lifes, finding it resonated deeply within weeks.

Wax can wander. The conversation starts with the awkward side of wax work: it can flake in the kiln and leave black spots where nobody wanted them. From there, the guest ties the technical problem back to drawing confidence, the kind built slowly through practice and repetition. Ceramics asks for commitment. A line, layer, or surface choice can go wrong fast, but that risk is part of the pull. Presence becomes part of the technique. Glazing and surface work come across almost like meditation, with each motion needing attention while still leaving room for accident. The host hears painting in it. He calls the process high risk and high reward, especially when the wax's viscosity decides how long the brush wants to keep moving. Tools are never neutral. Wax can protect a pot and cause trouble in the same breath, especially when water leaves the surface too slick to hold. The talk stays practical, moving through lining pots, decorating before protection, testing waxes at a clay studio, and learning what a material does under pressure. Failure does not get dressed up. Sometimes there is a fix, and sometimes there is not. Still, the conversation keeps returning to the work of staying present. Wax ends up feeling like more than a surface method because it shows how much trust, control, risk, and recovery can sit inside a pot. Cornell Studio Supply, MonkeyStuff, and the Rosenfeld Collection frame the interview, but the real center stays in the studio problem. Patient, tactile, and nicely specific.

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Tales of a Red Clay Rambler: A pottery and ceramic art podcast