Lora Martini is a local ceramic artist. In her designs, her primary focus is on texture, scale and aesthetic information. The drive of her creativity originates in the surrounding patterns in nature. Nature recharges and directs her attention to develop designs, patterns and details that are ever changing and growing. The time she spends in nature is her preparation phase and the incubation phase of the creative process. There she finds the patterns and textures of her subject matter and inspiration. Tree bark, twigs and leaves are often depicted on the surfaces of the vessels she constructs. She holds great regard for the creative process, as a unity of cognition and action. In her ceramic design she reaches for the delicate balance between the use of positive and negative space (as in her Trees Series), the pull of clay body’s physical structure (as in the Trees Series) or in her clean line design (as in Leaves Series). In most cases she begins her work on the potter’s wheel and later adds detail and surface design to reflect and develop the design concept. Her work is primarily glazed in white ceramic finish that is intentionally crazed. She achieves the crazing surface pattern in a Raku firing process, where a severe tension in the cooling process leads to the glaze contraction that is greater than the ceramic surface that it adhered to. The earthy feel that she achieves on the finished vessels connects her to nature and reminds her of life’s balance and fragility.