Lee Onstott spent most of his career as a Civil Engineer working around the country in the highway industry. In 1991 he came to New Mexico as a highway engineer and has been here ever since. He is now retired from engineering.
In 2000 Lee took his first pottery course in wheel throwing at Santa Fe Clay. Lee took various pottery classes and tried different styles of pottery making until his first class in micaceous pottery in 2005. Then he was hooked, and since then has studied and worked exclusively with Micaceous Pottery. His primary mentor and teacher was Felipe Ortega.
Micaceous Pottery is a traditional style of pottery that utilizes clay with a very high content of mica. Mica is one of nature's best insulators allowing the pots to hold heat, but also absorb the thermal shock of being placed on a hot stovetop. The pots are made by the coil method and then wood fired. Micacous pottery has been utilized in various locations in the world for many centuries, and in the southwest for over eight hundred years.
Lee's interest in micaceous pottery comes from the "hands on" method by which the pottery is made and fired. The clay comes from Northern New Mexico and is dug and processed by hand. The pots are made from coils of clay that are smoothed and scraped to form the desired shape. The pots are pre- fired in an electric kiln and then wood fired in an open pit. The wood firing gives the unique colors and subtle tones characteristic of micaceous pottery. This process is slow and tedious, but results in functional pottery where every piece is "one of a kind". Lee particularly likes making pottery that can be used for cooking and then be left out to be viewed as a work of art.
Lee worked at Sant Fe Clay and Baca Street Pottery until he built a studio at his home in 2016. There he can now be found building and firing his micaceous pots. The pots are available at my studio, on line, or at Cafe Pasqual's gallery in Santa Fe.