Artists on Location: Potter gets creative with colourful glazes
There will be more than 50 Artists on Location throughout the village during Purple Hills Arts and Heritage Society’s Creemore Festival of the Arts from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Oct. 5-6. Pick up an event map at the info booth set up on the Village Green stage to find the location of artists working in a variety of mediums including paints, fibre, textile, photography, pottery, wood, mosaic, jewellery, sculpture and mixed media.
From the first time Jennifer Ross threw raw clay on a wheel, she was hooked. It was 16 years ago. At that point she was unmarried, childless and living in Barrie. A group of friends signed up for a pottery class as a fun, social outing.
“Right from the start, I was very serious,” she recalls. “I knew I needed this in my life and I was completely focused.”
Ross had tried many forms of art but never found anything that allowed her to lose herself like creating pottery. One of her first projects was a sushi set which she made for then-boyfriend Gavin. She was intensely proud of it at the time, now she says it seems clunky and embarrassing. Gavin, however, still treasures it.
A full-time school teacher, Ross found time for pottery whenever she could. The next summer, she followed up with a more intensive course at the Haliburton School of the Arts where she developed a lot more technical skills.
Before long, Ross was married and expecting her first child. It was during her maternity leave that they started house hunting, and wound up purchasing a home on the shore of the Mad River near Creemore. Their new home included a space where Ross couldeventually set up a studio, and easy access to fly fishing for her husband.
On the day they moved in, they met neighbour Leanne Cohen whose Mad Pots studio was just a few doors down. Ross says Cohen was a huge part of her becoming a potter at the rate she did. Cohen rented Ross space in her studio.
“It was the perfect situation,” she said. “It was just steps away from home so I could be available to nurse my children, but it allowed me some freedom and time for myself.”
Ross worked out of Mad Pots for about two years before eventually turning the space above the garage into a pottery studio. She named it Fernhollow – a reference to the view across the river in springtime.
Ross says over the years, her work has become less heavy and clunky, but the palette has remained consistent.
“I make what I want in my own house, which is problematic because my kitchen is now so full of things I’ve made. I only do pieces I’m invested in. I’m not an espresso drinker so I have no interest in making espresso sets. We are latte drinkers, so I make nice big mugs,” said Ross.
“My larger pieces tend to be neutral, mostly white because I like the presentation of food on white. With mugs and cups I get a little more colourful and playful.”
The process of creating pottery is about a month long, according to Ross. “I throw a piece from raw clay. It then has to air dry for a minimum of two weeks before the first, or bisque, firing. Then I glaze the piece and fire it again. It stays in the kiln for a couple of days to cool from the 2,100 degree firing temperature.”
Ross says glazes in the bottle look nothing like they will on finished pieces. There is a lot of trial and error, and potters tend to have love/hate relationships with glazes.
“You’ve made it through throwing and the first firing, but so much can go wrong during glazing. You lose so many pieces at this stage.” She has a couple of favourite glazes that she keeps going back to but is always trying new colours, which she introduces gradually.
- Fernhollow pottery will be on display at the Creemore Springs Brewery at 139 Mill St.
