Saturday, January 17, 2009

Workshop with Scott Walker

by Eleanor Hendriks

This past week I had the pleasure of spending three days at the Haliburton School of The Arts
for the first in a series of workshops for professional potters.

The first presenter was Scott Walker of Peterborough, Ontario. He makes functional wheel thrown pottery in traditional shapes with a refined sensibility. He uses beautiful glazes and his teapots are elegant little gems.


This monstrous tourtierre (I'm guessing it is 15" across!) had everyone oooh-ing and ah-ing. Attempting this shape will be my next challenge in the studio...


Scott demonstrated many of his signature pieces with good grace and humour. I was particularily taken with Scott's attention to detail -particularily to the bottoms of his pieces.



The foot on this bowl is so refined -I would be tempted to display it upside down!



A finished bottom -notice the very particular glaze application, on both the usually unseen bottom and in the carved bands, all set off by smoothly finished unglazed porcelain.

And, because it is always nice to match the potter to the pots... the face behind the work...

Thanks, Scott!

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Valentine's Flop...

by Eleanor Hendriks

Back to the studio and the blog after a very busy Christmas season...

I'm working away on custom requests that accumulated during the holiday season and on a special project. The Etsy Mud Team is having a Sweetheart Vase Challenge and our entries are due by Jan 27th. I keep selling, breaking or overshooting the deadline with my pieces for these challenges... I was hoping that this time I'd make it but I got over enthusiastic with my piece and over indulged with the flourishes.

Between the stamping, the carving and the heart-y handles, I think I've ruined it by doing too much... Unless maybe some slip trailing would help?...

Don't worry, I've got a backup piece and I intend to show a little more restraint with that one. Sometimes less is more -maybe not for love -but definately for pottery decoration...
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