metal is clay

The Cracks Are How The Dark Gets Out: contemporary porcelain vessel, part of my ongoing Fenestrations series. 2020 was definitely a year when the dark could get stuck inside, and as other recent life experiences have taught me, it is necessary to seize the light. I haven’t published the Fenestrations series works - yet: I want to develop a show opportunity for them. Somewhere where we can walk through the whiteness, and let the light do the talking, rays and shadows completing the forms. This is a short video introducing a favourite piece from the kiln in 2020.  No doubt about it, all this isolation is tough on everyone. I’m spending my time making, and learning: making my own studio videos, and doing more self-promotion in a time when there are so few live show opportunities (find me on instagram and twitter @metalisclay ). Artist statement follows. Hope you enjoy, and please get in touch to find out more about available work, thanks. "The Cracks Are How The Dark Gets Out" ...

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...

For Valentine’s… #15 looking, dare I say, hot! P ulsing with colour and promise. You can find a wide selection of my vases - from the petite and curvaceous , to the tall, brooding, and handsome at Bluerock Gallery , Black Diamond, Alberta, Canada. B l uerock will ship, or there is a lovely florist nearby if you're local. "#15: Be Mine" pinched porcelain vase, with “Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow: Orange and Red Slurpee” glazes. 21 cm tall. Christine Pedersen. 2015. #canadianceramics #spreadtheword L oving these tulips. The hashtags I am adding #canadianceramics #spreadtheword come from a new Canadian Ceramics web-site ma k eanddo - the site is building a directory of Canadian clay artists, offers guest artist features, and the work of a core group of fabulous Canadian contemporary clay artists. Pop over and see!

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...

Merry Christmas! Have some rich, dense and creamy gluten free (GF) shortbread—a small (but cunning) gift from me to anyone who is gluten-free or loves someone who is… And if everything goes according to plan, it will mean that lots more people will be able to offer home-baked gluten free goodies when I go round for a visit! My mum’s shortbread was legendary, not least because it lasted for such a short time once she’d baked it… I have modified her recipe by increasing the usually small amounts of ground almonds and rice flour to completely replace the wheat flour. And I took inspiration from her use of whipping cream to ‘wet’ and bind the dry ingredients, instead of just using water. What an amazing difference—that creamy, fresh flavour I had always loved is right there in the first taste. See below for recipe. Gluten free almond, rice four and butter shortbread baked in an unglazed stoneware tray. Diameter 10”, 0.75” deep. The trays make great pizza too. Christine Pedersen 2015...

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...

South of Calgary for half an hour, then drive due west—past the Big Rock (1) and fields of rolling prairie foothills—straight towards the Rockies… It’s a lovely drive down to Black Diamond from Calgary. My first collection of work is now on show at Bluerock Gallery —so proud to be joining the talented artists and friends already there. Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow: Orange & Red Slurpee . Pinched porcelain vase. 17.5 cm/ 7” tall. Christine Pedersen. 2015. If you’re making the trip, I strongly recommend you set-off early and call into Chinook Meadery , just west of Okotoks. Loads of lovely honey-related products, honeycomb to sample, and a live hive doing actual bee-business right there in the shop. Top tip: the honey ganache is amazing on bread and cookies, or straight off your finger whilst still sitting in their car-park. We are working our way into the case of mead we brought back, haven’t drunk them all yet so we can’t elect a champion. So far: six thumbs way up! (1...