by The Potters Place Gallery | Sep 17, 2018 | Monthly Feature, Monthly Features, News and Events
by The Potters Place Gallery | May 31, 2018 | BLOG, Featured Artist, Monthly Feature
[pdf-embedder url=”https://www.thepottersplace.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/2018-June-PPG-Feature-Article.pdf” title=”Featured Artists June 2018″]
by The Potters Place Gallery | May 1, 2018 | BLOG, Featured Artist, Monthly Feature
Ellen Statz was Born and raised in Campbell River, Ellen is a true Island girl.
Her father was a commercial fisherman which speaks to her long and direct connection with the sea and with nature.
In a happy bit of serendipity, Ellen took her first pottery class while pursing a Fine Art Diploma at Malaspina College (now VIU) in Nanaimo. After college, she balanced work, family and pottery until 2006, when she made the decision to work in her studio full time.
Crocodiles, Alligators and Eggs
The work in this show revives the alligator fascination from Ellen’s early days as a raku potter. Her work has traveled down a number of different roads since then, but in 2015 she had the opportunity to try soda firing for the first time. Ellen was captivated by the unique and textural way that soda touches each piece in the kiln, and suddenly, the alligator addiction was back! Grouped together, she imagines them as naughty children … plotting, scheming, and generally up to no good. And maybe just a little bit devilish!
They make her smile, a she hopes they make you smile too!
Naked Raku …
Ellen has also been enjoying her work with naked raku, where smoke and fire create random patterns. Some are later enhanced with cold finishes and then waxed and polished. The sinuous, lustrous shapes feel calming and contemplative, and invite touch.
Both touch and playfulness add rich dimension to our daily lives. Ellen feels very fortunate to have a job she loves, and the opportunity to share her passion with others.
Ellen’s magical pottery will be in the FEATURED WINDOW of The Potters Place Gallery for the entire month of May, 2018. Come on by and see this wonderful display of local handcrafted ceramics by a very talented local potter.
by The Potters Place Gallery | Dec 30, 2017 | BLOG, Monthly Feature, News and Events
Mark your calendars. January 15-31 That amazing annual RED DOT sale is here again.
You’ve been waiting for this sale since last year!
As always, partial proceeds from this sale will go to various valley charities.
This sale is our way of saying thank you for your support all year.
We love our community and our customers who choose handmade over big box stores, local over shipped in, and handmade over factory produced when it comes time for yourself and your gifts.
Our way of saying Thank You Comox Valley, for another great year. Don’t Miss This Once A Year Event!
A little background for you about… Potters and the Creative Process
The Potters Place is a not for profit society and part of our mandate is educating and supporting our community about the ceramic arts.
There is a movement a foot around the world – “Less Plastic More Clay” and over this next year, we at The Potters Place are hoping to spread the word through education and example, we hope to help the ComoxValley move away from plastic in their kitchens replacing everyday items with pottery instead. Even… your colanders.
The Potters of The Potters Place Gallery are clearing out their studios. The frenzy of the holiday season has passed and the potters now have time to reflect on their goals and where they would like to take their art in the coming year. Every artist and designer goes through a creative process. Potters are no different. There are as many different approaches to creativity as there are artists. Some prefer to create spontaneously; some choose a more methodical approach. Are spontaneity and method mutually exclusive? We think not. We believe they work together and that every artist, no matter how spontaneous, or conscious goes through four basic steps: 1) idea generation 2) work, experimentation and testing 3) self, peer, or mentor evaluation and 4) presentation. It is work, experimentation and testing that is important here.
There are a multitude of facets of pottery, so many, so that a potter could work a life time and still be learning. Sometimes potters choose to focus on one type of firing, or forming technique for many years. Then and opportunity arises to try something new, a spark is ignited and a new tangent is explored. During this exploration and experimentation every piece created may not be exactly what the potter is trying to achieve. It doesn’t mean this creation is not beautiful and will not completely fill someone’s aesthetic; it may however, not be exactly what the potter was aiming for.
At the Red Dot Sale you will find the actualization of these stages of growth.
– You will find pots that are formed from pushing limitations and being vulnerable enough to try something new can be beautiful and lead the potter on a new journey.
– You will find pots that are ends of lines
– You will find pots that are styles that a potter is no longer creating
– You will find pots similar to what you found last month, only reduced to make room for more pots.
You get to benefit from this by finding perfectly good pots at reduced prices at The Potters Place Gallery at 5 th and Cliffe, in Courtenay during our Red Dot Sale. It is our way of saying thank you to our loyal customers and welcome to our new customers.
What a great way to find a home for pots that are practically perfect in every way.
We invite you to cross the road at Cliffe and head over to the courtyard.
There is also parking at rear
by The Potters Place Gallery | Apr 28, 2016 | Featured Artist, Monthly Feature, Monthly Features
Don’t Cry Salty Tears!
Sue Taylor is our Featured Artist at The Potters Place Gallery throughout the month May/2016.
Her work is an extraordinary display of SALT FIRED pottery. Delicate wine cups, illuminated luminaries, bountiful bowls and the like are all fired to about 1300 degrees centigrade. As the kiln burns red hot inside, she adds salt to the fire at specific temperatures.
This method of firing and glazing is a traditional method dating back centuries. The salt vaporizes practically immediately as it hits the flame in the kiln, and then those vapors travel around the pots in the kiln, weaving in and around them, over and even under each piece, leaving it’s own glaze on each pot. The flame and traveling vapors are able to kiss the underside of the pottery because each pot is placed in the kiln on what we potters call WADDING. These are little bean like shapes of clay that elevate the pot up off the shelf, allowing the bottoms of each piece to be kissed by the flame. This is a very unique firing method and the results are … Beyond Beautiful.
The Potters Place Gallery is located at the corner of 5th and Cliffe in downtown Courtenay in the 5th st. Courtyard. 10 – 5pm Mon-Sat. 250-334-4613.
