What equipment is provided?
- clay
- two wheels
- tools
- additional table workspace if needed.
How much space do I need to host a class?
Each wheel work space requires a minimum 4’x3’ area with accessibility into given space.
In addition, you will need:
- area for 3’x4’ work table(s), one per two people
- access to water is essential, a sink is ideal, but filled buckets can also work.
- multi-day classes will need somewhere to store clay pieces between classes.
What do I need to bring?
- towel
- clothes that can get dirty
Will my space get dirty/messy?
I encourage everyone to ‘clean as you go’ to keep clay contained and at the end of class we all work together to leave the space as it was. I will do a final mop at the end.
Can we eat, drink, play music?
Yes! Unless you would like participants to wear masks, or if current Covid protocols dictate masks, then we will need to forgo snacks.
How do my clay pieces get finished?
I will bring completed pieces to my studio, do the first (bisque) firing in my kiln, then glaze pieces and fire them again. Longer classes (weekly) have the option to do the glazing yourselves.
What colour will my piece be?
I will bring a selection of 2-3 glazes for you to choose from and I will dip your piece in the chosen glaze.
When can I pick up my finished pottery?
This will vary and will be outlined in each class. Pottery has many stages, drying, first (bisque) firing, glazing, then firing a second time. Therefore pieces being finished to completion with a glaze firing are subject to my studio firing schedule and may not be glaze fired for a few weeks after the end of class. Thanks for your understanding.
Which option should I choose?
Tutorial only
Do you already have supplies/tools/kiln etc and just want guidance through the project?
- Purchase 'tutorial only' and receive tutorial link via email within one business day.
- Complete project at your leisure
- Firing and glazing not included.
- https://www.kilnshare.com/ is a useful resource to find firing services near you.
Comox Valley Locals - all included
Do you live in the Comox Valley and want a fun project to do at home solo or with someone?
- Register for class by registration deadline, note the dates.
- Took kit delivered to your door (Comox Valley only) on specific date, to be returned at end of class. Ensure you include any necessary instructions for delivery, including where to leave it if no one is home.
- You have two weeks to complete project at your leisure
- I pick up pieces and the tool kit on specific date (listed in each class description). Have your pieces and kit ready and out somewhere for me to find and access easily.
- I complete the firings and glazing
- Pick up final pieces at my Merville studio after I let you know they are complete. (Firing times subject to my studio kiln schedule).
Note: If you miss putting your pieces and kit out for pickup, it becomes your responsibility to get you creations to my Merville studio for firing.
Beyond the Comox Valley - clay kit option
Do you have somewhere to fire your pieces and want a clay kit to keep and continue creating with?
Note: Clay provided by me is a cone 6 stoneware, anyone firing your pieces will want to know that. Not everyone will be open to firing other artists work, be mindful and please do your research before registering. https://www.kilnshare.com/ is a useful resource to find firing services near you.
- Purchase 'beyond the CV - clay kit option' and receive tutorial link via email within one business day.
- Clay kit will be sent via Canada post expedited parcel within 3 business days.
What is provided in the Clay Kit?
- Required amount of clay (450g)
- Canvas to work on
- Cutting & carving tool
- Metal rib tool
- Scoring tool
- Hole-making tool
- Two small containers of underglaze (blue & green unless different colours requested)
- Paintbrush
- Sponge
Painting Series Artist Statements
Re-wilding
Re-wild • verb
- restore (an area of land) to its natural uncultivated state (used especially with reference to the reintroduction of species of wild animal that have been driven out or exterminated).
From Oxford Dictionary
With a focus on animals, nature and landscape, Re-wilding is a series of paintings aimed to connect us with our wilderness as well as touch on our own personal wildness. I spend time in the mountains and forests and find that is when I feel most whole, most alive, closest to whatever unknown forces exist around us. It is where feeling both powerful and strong as well as miniscule and humble co-exist for me. The landscape component of my paintings touches on the vastness of land and space and the desire to see what is around the bend, just over the next hill, the next mountain.
I use imagery of wild animals to represent both the fierceness and vulnerability that we can embody when out of our constructed habitat of buildings, roads, cars into the wild with weather on our faces and earth under our feet. It does not need to involve climbing a mountain, it can be as simple as bare feet on soil or turning your face to the sun, living with intention, vulnerable and imperfect. I want my paintings to be a reminder, a call, to get out, explore, be brave, and re-wild… to spend time in a less cultivated state, to re-introduce our human selves to the land with respect and awe.
Favourite Places I've Never Been
My ever-growing series of paintings, Favorite Places I’ve Never Seen, is based on places both real and imagined. Each piece is a landscape, with a layer of fantasy. I work with an idea of a specific place I remember from personal experience or a story or photo or occasionally a dream, then embellish the place in my mind into something magical and unknown until it becomes it’s own place… it’s own world. I am not interested in any place in particular, but instead in the feeling a place can evoke. Places that are seemingly deserted, but upon closer inspection turn out to have traces of habitation, create a sense of wonder about the lives that have touched the place. It is this curiosity and mystery that I aim to capture in each painting.
Pottery Line Artist Statements
Lighting
Light is inherently uplifting, bringing ambience and character into a space, resonating with our human desire for warmth, connection, and community. My tealight and pendant lighting is made of translucent porcelain formed on the wheel and then hand-carved resulting in a one-of-a-kind piece that serves as both a functional object and a work of art. Each one is carefully made to bring light to people’s space, and it is my joy to create pieces that will bring joy and elevate the everyday.
Transient and ephemeral, light interacts with a room, casting brightness, but also shadow and negative space. I consider this dichotomy in my work by creating pieces that honour the light and pieces that honour the dark or sometimes both.
Flora & Fauna
Flora & Fauna, uses scientific illustrations to delve into the world of biology and anatomy, with images of everything from sea creatures, to insects, to an anatomical heart and beyond. Flora & Fauna began years ago when I stumbled upon and was inspired by the illustrations of Ernst Haeckel, a German biologist, naturalist, philosopher, physician, professor, and artist who discovered, described, and named thousands of new species, mapped a genealogical tree, and coined many terms in biology. Originally, I used his images in my work but quickly transitioned to drawing all my own images with ink and watercolour. I am constantly working on new drawings to add to Flora & Fauna, therefore the images available at a given time is dependent on what I am currently working with. The pieces are meant to add some contemplation of the natural world into people’s daily lives… to marvel at the symmetry of feathers or the oddness of tentacles while sipping your coffee from a Flora & Fauna mug.
Imprints
Imprints uses texture and coloured glazes to draw our attention to the minutia of the world around us. Each texture is created using stamps I make myself from textures or carved clay. Often the texture is of something small like a shell or leaf but once applied to the clay also represents larger mountainous forms. The glaze colours I develop to reference landscapes of ocean, forest and mountains. The pieces are rooted in our connection to nature and serve to add to people’s daily rituals using hand-made pottery.
Vessels
My vessels are rooted in what I think of as ‘the shadowlands’… the place of mourning, and loss and the idea of the sacred. This is a part of human experience in which people often turn to ritual and these vessels are my offering, carrying the meaning people imbue upon them, containing any physical or symbolic artifact placed in them. I have been honoured over the years to create custom vessels for ceremony and memorial. Each vessel has the original custom drawing included, which can be created to a person’s specifications.