Hector Mavridis: Seeking the Elemental

Bent over the wheel, Hector Mavridis demonstrates to his workshop students how to throw wide terra cotta pots. Next, he guides each student in throwing large pots, pushing them beyond their comfort level. Then come the tall, narrow bottle forms, the composite pots, and the many experiments in glazing and firing: raku, pit firing, paper-kiln firing (in a kiln built by the students), and more.

Born 1958 in Melbourne, Australia to Greek parents, Hector Mavridis and his family moved back to Greece in 1969. Between 1979 and 1988, he lived in Chicago, where he studied ceramics and linguistics at Northeastern Illinois University. Since