Joan Lederman of The Soft Earth in Woods Hole, MA created this stoneware platter. Called Above and Below Equator, it's a truly unique piece, using clay and glazes of marine materials and sediments.

Joan's unique style features the firing of sediment from the below the ocean floor to create stoneware that can't be found on the average merchant's shelves.

In fact, Earth-crust slurry from drillings in the mid-Atlantic ridge and from the Pacific's Santa Barbara Basin are used in this piece. Exotic glazes come from the equatorial region, and feature eel grass seaweed as a component.