metal is clay

“Open Vessel”, 14” long, Southern Ice porcelain. Survived the bisque firing—phew—now ready for a high temp firing to mature the clay. Everything takes time…make, dry, fire, fire again. And there’s a lot of sampling. Some pieces will unfortunately fail, but they all provide information. All this process tries to make next time go better, to feel more informed. But these are raw materials and their character changes, even with refined minerals, making ceramics a pretty harsh teacher. It's a journey, and to quote Tony Nadal, tennis legend Rafa Nadal’s uncle/coach: “Stay humble, stay hungry”. The sample: “Skiff”, un-glazed sculptural porcelain vessel, cone 10 fired, and ready to go out in the world. Skiff—deep in the kiln, in amongst endless glaze tests, on the bottom shelf of the last glaze-firing. That orange sample in the centre is incredible, going to be seeing a lot more of that colour…  

She said “yes!”. It’s such a joy and a privilege to be asked to make that special ring—and this was an intriguing project right from the start: our bride-to-be had chosen her diamonds, was totally ready to have her custom betrothal band commissioned, and wanted to have no part in the design process. Just wow! The whole idea of that made me smile so much - how exciting would that be? Just waiting for that shiny surprise… 1 4k Palladium white gold cast betrothal band, with 3 princess-cut diamonds. Christine Pedersen, 2018.  Presented in hand-made ring-box, designed and built by Kelo Designs of Calgary. Kudos to Alex, the groom-to-be, for leading this wonderful task, and giving me some really good ideas about what Ali didn’t like—that was such a strong way to start a design process for you both. And cheers for the family brainstorm where I got to know Ali more as a person through all of you: we imagined what sort of ring we might create—something that could fit her per...

“Twenty” was a complex piece to make real ; it started by sharing in a dream… What is the client imagining? What can they see and feel? And there it was in my hands, the finished piece: thick, lush, textured, a golden and hefty gem-set brass carabiner, with my thumb flicking that addictive gate-wire! The imagined carabiner had a haptic, emotional identity before material, or sketching. It came to life through our massively powerful human ability to transmit the idea of The Thing between us. Everyone’s a maker when they choose to spend a moment visualizing the thing made, finished, right there in front of them. It’s a delicious first step. And it sends the real-world maker off to find the right tools… And there’s the rub: the idea of the thing isn’t enough to make it real, because there’s still all the mess and details and skill of the making. That’s where the maker or artist chooses to fall into building the dream. This is the "making of" video for a commi...

Whoa! That's a very young me with my skewbald bestie and life-long inspiration... Read a feature article in the Okotoks Feb 2017 C u ltural newsletter. Want to talk horse all evening AND learn to sculpt a horse-head in clay? Sounds like a great way to spend time to me! I am really looking forward to teaching this course - starts March 16, 2017, and you can register through the Town of Okotok’s website here. Punk, Jazz, and Classical: ponies with attitude! Christine Pedersen. 2016. You will spend four 2-hour evening classes making your sculpture, after which your piece will dry, and then be fired for you. During the final 2-hour class, you will decide whether to use paint or glaze to decorate your finished horse-head. This course is for anyone who would like to sculpt with potter’s clay. No experience is necessary—just bring your enthusiasm, and pictures of horse-heads that you find inspiring. I will cover all of the important techniques for hand-sculpting , and y...

Really looking forward to teaching this course - you can register through the website here . This is a relatively short course with four 2-hour evening classes to make your sculpture, after which your piece will dry, and then be fired for you. During the final 2-hour class, you will decide whether to use paint or glaze to decorate your finished sculpture. This course is for anyone who would like to sculpt with potter’s clay. We will provide materials and instruction to get everyone successfully working with clay. For those with some clay experience, I will help you develop your composition and build character into your piece. The course is focused on the horse, but your “look” can be as literal or abstract as you wish, and you will make your piece as simple or challenging as you want in the time available. I will cover all the important techniques for hand-sculpting forms in clay in the fun and stimulating environment of the artist’s studio upstairs at the Okotoks Art Galler...

Great to see Monday morning’s Ceramic Arts Daily post , featuring Emily Schroeder-Willis hand-building—pinching—a lovely full-bellied pitcher. I really admire Emily's work, and as a larger-scale pincher myself, I am super-happy to see this fundamental technique receive more profile. A quick on-line search for the earliest clay pots around the world - Chinese, Jomon, Anglo-saxon, iron or bronze age - gives us pots that range from the ceremonial to the sublimely beautiful, a process in which humanity declared a relationship between form and function, and built joy via beauty. Because hand-building can do it all.  Little to large... Everyday hand-built pots on my kitchen counter. Christine Pedersen. 2016. From a making perspectiv e : I like to m ix up the methods. D eveloping our design ideas is fundamental to building variety and refinement in our finished forms, and a ny technique requires dedication and an investment of time for us to become really skilled at it. S...

New work on its way to Bluerock Gallery for Meet The Herd, this weekend July 16 and 17, 2016. Follow this link for full event details. Hope to see you there :) Untitled #1. Chased and repousséd biomorphic form. Oxidized aluminium. Christine Pedersen. 2016. I make what I love—way to start a Monday! It’s a really great feeling that I can walk into my office (aka the basement studio) and love what I do. Now that doesn’t mean it’s easy… I spend a fair bit of time hugging a mug of tea and staring at things ;) And it really takes time, that wondering how to do them—I know what I want—but I’ve got to figure out the how, and what materials, and which techniques will get me there. I sketch a lot . All sorts of designs… The process of making becomes what my brain says is interesting, it is what “we"—the head, hands and heart of me—will do. All to say that I have a very wide variety of inspirations, and the biggest joy is going where they take me. This is the first piece I hav...

“Sorry it was so much bother” “Don’t worry about it, everything I do is bother!” I like to bother about stuff, that’s my day-job: dream, design, then make. Hundreds of small steps and details to bother about, on the way to something new. Along the way, I repair a lot of my own stuff. My friend and neighbour is a: “Please look after my dog” “Who wants cake and mojito’s?” - kind of neighbour. And he broke a favourite belt. It wasn’t expensive, but it is quite lovely: supple, dark Italian leather, with a cast buckle that delivered all the strain of bending over after a big dinner onto a tiny plate of who-knows-what cast metal that is - was - less than 1mm thick. Poor design. Why not just buy another belt? Maybe he should have—but it’s the principle… W e can mend things, and I could share a little happiness by drilling two holes and swinging a hammer to set 2 fat new rivets through a serious piece of scrap brass—that belt now has 5.7mm of quality metal to take the strain. A qui...

I always keep a piece from a new body of work: I need to spend time getting to know it.  #15 “Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow: Orange and Red Slurpee” pinched porcelain vase form. Height: 8 inches. Christine Pedersen. 2015. And so #15 stayed with us, and I schemed up a delightful challenge for myself: in the name of art—and pictures for my blog—I would fill it with flowers for every opportunity I could make up for a whole year. Sweet. First up: a lovely (and very modestly priced) bouquet from the supermarket for Christmas 2015.  #15 “Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow: Orange and Red Slurpee” pinched porcelain vase form. Seasonal flowers. Christine Pedersen. 2015. I always approach a vase thinking about the overall shape, as something to contemplate in my home, because most of the time it will probably stand empty. But as I make the piece, I end up imagining flowers and how they will fill it: how the stalks reach down to the bottom and push off at an angle; how wide a...

It’s January. It’s cold. Comfort foods rule. And we’re on the way to February—still cold—and the first of the chocolate holidays… Perfect time for a tray of brownies. Gluten free chocolate brownie: topped with dark chocolate ganache fondant icing and dried sour cherries, dusted with icing sugar. Served on a wood-fired stoneware platter. Christine Pedersen. 2016. A gluten free friend sent me this brownie recipe back in 2002—and I still have the original email I printed off. The paper looks a bit brown now - not from age - just the accumulated smudges of brownie batter and fondant icing from hundreds of bakings… For I am “She Who Brings The GF Brownies” to neighbourhood functions, a deliverer of dessert to those prowling the buffet table in the hope of a dietarily-appropriate chocolate fix. But, if asked, other guests do not seem to care that the recipe also happens to be gluten free, they’re just scarfing down really good brownies before they all get eaten. All this makes me po...

Photographing a group of new pieces is always interesting—getting to know who they are and seeing how they fit together. I had placed 18 porcelain vases on my dining room table ready to take their pictures; after a couple of days of hanging out with them I felt like I was trying to organise the guests in a wedding party… All those colours and heights and styles—lining up, fitting in, and settling the kids down in front. And then there are all the other shots - like the small family group caught in a candid moment, the teenager poignantly standing apart from their parents. Vases have a very special place in my affections and my need to make (more on this below). Thanks to the Citizen’s of Craft web-site for helping to get the word out that “Vases are people too”. I knew I wasn’t alone :) The vases are available from the excellent Bluerock Gallery in Black Diamond, Alberta.   The Family Photo 2015 - Probably Unrepeatable. Porcelain vases, tallest is 11 inches. Christin...

I have a rule when I make my ceramics: I have to love how the finished piece looks on my dining room table. This was the first large piece that I glazed in my new glaze style: “Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow” - it has splashes of bright yellow and lime green glaze on top of a translucent glaze, on high-fired porcelain clay. There is also a funky mix of wood ash, black underglaze, and ash splodges: it captures a snow-bank a few days after a snow-fall - the expanse of white, splashes from the road and bikes and - y ou can fill in the rest of the inspiration. Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow. Porcelain walled and footed bowl. Pinched and hand-built form. 4.5” x 8”. Christine Pedersen. 2015. This glaze style makes me smile... It was hard to let go and take it to Bluerock , and I have a blank space in the middle of my table. Maybe I’ll be able to post a shot of it on the dining room table of its new home.

It's wonderful to be able to make what you love. Period. It just is. But apparently there are problems too—like the separation anxiety I'm having as I send new pieces off to an exhibition or show, I'm finding it really hard to let go. Chalice Series vessels, left to right: "Ich Dien (I Serve)", "Chalice #3", "Chalice #2 (Just Another Vessel". Handbuilt Southern Ice porcelain, underglaze, translucent glaze with encapsulated stains, ash glaze. Fired to cone 10 in oxidation. 2012. Three of the new "Chalice Series" vessels I fired and glazed over New Year are now moving out into two summer shows: "Chalice #2, Just Another Vessel" will be part of the Alberta Craft Council summer exhibition "Shift. A Transformative State Of Mind" which opens July 14 in Edmonton; "Chalice #3" and "Ich Dien (I Serve)" will be available in Calgary at the Ruberto-Ostberg Gallery Show "Connections", o...

I did something slightly nuts over New Year... I fired 3 kiln-loads of porcelain , wanting some very specific pieces glazed and ready to ponder their metalwork and gemstone additions. It added up to very late nights and early mornings - with not nearly as much whisky as I would have liked (but I can always catch up on that). I was finally flirting with the first pieces in a long anticipated body of work. I think I know what they might be like when they’re finished - I’ve seen them in the movies my brain runs long after my hands have stopped working, they seem fabulous - so colourful, lush, ancient looking. Blank porcelain bisque, and glaze samples But first, I had to overcome a situation many potters fear: the room full of bisque. Clean, white, totally blank. The pots look like the pieces that I made, and yet they don’t. Strangers - all of them - sitting around in my tiny studio, intimidating me every time I passed. I had set them out around the room, and then spent at lea...

A single purple petunia. Knocked onto the sidewalk, bright face turned defiantly to the sky, nearly crushed underfoot. I picked it up and brought it home. It quickly took up residence in a wood-fired porcelain cook’s dish. Restored overnight, it was ready to greet the camera.