water-like glaze

Making a pot is the first challenge or expression, what to do with a surface is a whole other kettle of fish. What moves me very often is water. Running water, still water, over rocks, over leaves, frozen, melting......you get the picture. Glazes have an affinity to this visual in that they melt, run, flow, can be transparent. I choose to work with ash glazes for a variety of reasons. Ash is a local, non- industrial ingredient, it is interesting to explore what is right in front of us[me], and I like the not completely controllable properties of ash glazing. Ash has micro ingredients that contribute subtleties and surprises with each batch. Sometimes the surprises aren't happy ones like when the glaze runs off the pot and onto the kiln shelf, but more often than not bowl interiors have lovely pooling, swirls, especially if layered over pond clay slip. Just be sure to bisque the slip, to burn off gasses that make the glaze bubble.

Claudel Hebert at my studio

This Sunday, July6,

I will be hosting an exhibition of bowls by a local potter, Claudel Hebert. She has a collection of 40 bowls to show and each one is for sale for $25. They are all beautifully decorated. As well, Gita Schneider will have her organic body care products, and teas, each one better than the next. And my studio is overflowing with pots. We will all be there from noon on.

Basket type pot

After taking a weekend course with master"weaver of natural materials"Nathalie Levasseur, I have attempted integrating different materials into my work, mostly in the way of handles. It is more challenging than it looks, at least for my brain. This is a pinched pot with a found piece of wood, bound with some thin wood I found in the recesses of a studio cupboard. The glaze is ash and it is high fired. Photos by Laurence Amelie Montpetit.

Whenever I am looking for direction, the first thing that comes to mind is to go outside and draw. My garden, the forest are always sources of calm and clarity. Because I grow a lot of squashes in my garden, their shapes keep finding their way into my work. This is a pinched piece, barrel fired. The photo was taken by Laurence Amelie Montpetit during my show at Espace Genereux Montpetit.