Doing a Collaboration Project | Jerri Puerner & Jeff Ham

Jerri Puerner & Jeff Ham | Episode 428

Ceramic artists Jerri Puerner and Jeff Ham teamed up in 2018 to make a plate a day and post works in progress and finished pieces on Instagram at @365.plates.

They maintain studio space at the Grand Rapids Pottery in Michigan.

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How do you pick a fellow collaborator?

Jerri: Well first, they have to be really good looking. (laughter) No, a fellow collaborator, you want somebody who matches your passion for clay, I think, who has that work ethic and who will approach it with a certain seriousness. I knew that would be Jeff.

Jeff: I think someone who is obviously open to the idea and game for it as Jerri mentioned earlier. Also someone whose work you respect especially if you are doing a clay project I think it makes sense to pick someone who is going to challenge you and inspire you.

In a collaboration how do you divide the responsibility?

Jeff: On a week by week basis. Actually we usually just whip out our calendars and say, Hey what do you have going on for the next three weeks? and we divvy up the days and just make it work.

How do you factor ownership of a project when you are doing it together as a collaboration?

Jerri: Well, it belongs to both of us.

Jeff: That’s a good question. I think because it is a Instagram based process and that is where the work is published, it sort of feels to me like we are sort of handing it to the digital space and letting it exist on there. So I am not sure I do own it.

Is there an opt out option?

Jerri: Nope. (laughter) What is that? No turning back.

What is your favorite tool to work with in making plates?

Jerri: Oh, that’s a tough one. I tend to make more slab plates so I would say a slab roller would be very important.

Jeff: So I really love throwing plates so I would probably say a bat is essential to that process.

How does creativity feed your soul?

Jeff: I would say, and this isn’t a very refined answer, but I think what I love about this project is when you have a moment of discovery, I think that really feeds my soul and makes me fulfilled. So that is like the genesis of a new idea or something that is approaching something important, I think that really happens a lot on this project. I think that moment of discovery compels me to go forward creatively.

Jerri: For me, to make something that is your own. Some folk ask me, Where do you get your ideas? And golly do I get them from a lot of different places, from nature, from walking, from not just art museums but from fabric, from patterns, from anywhere. But really it is just creating something that is your own.