Dorothy and Richard Rising have been clay artists for 34 years. In 1986 they moved their studio from New York to Las Cruces, New Mexico. In 1986 Las Cruces was a small 'laid back' town in the southern part of the state near the border with Mexico -- it is now a city of some 80,000 and growing rapidly. They opened their gallery which they named Rising Sky Artworks --Rising after the family name ( a tradition amongst potters ) and Sky because Las Cruces offers some of the most spectacular sky vistas of white cumulus clouds framed by the Organ Mountains to east and Chihuahuan Desert to the west. It is for good reason that the state is called The Land of Enchantment. At Rising Sky Artworks they make a high fire stoneware using a white porcelain clay fired in a gas oxidation kiln to 2400 F. Pieces are thrown on the wheel by Richard and handbuilding is done by Dorothy. Their travels through out the deserts of the Southwest -- Chihuahuan, Sonoran, and Mojave have provided a major inspiration for their glaze colours and compositions.
