James Kasper gave up on a PhD program in solid state physics and in 1993 established Prairie Dog Pottery Inc. in eastern Iowa on 40 acres of sand prairie and forest. He works almost exclusively with wood-fired sculptural forms. James' ceramic research interests include working with large solid ceramic forms, exploring kiln designs that allow less stressful burying of work with coals/wood in much of the kiln volume, and high firing ceramics with glass. His self-built wood-fire kilns have ranged from 30' long to as short as 6'.
