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Where it all began……
From as far back as I remember I loved playing in the mud and cow
patties
and with fire. The start of a future Raku and smoke fire artist started
in a small
French community called Casselman where most of our large extended
family lived. My aunt; Patricia Smith who is a well know artist in the
Ottawa area gave me a pencil and paper at the age of 8 and told me to go
draw what I saw outside. I came back with the ugliest drawing of a tree
and
mushrooms (yuck) but I‘ve always enjoyed the look of wood and many years
later my smoke fired pots were born. So I finally got to enjoy all the
things I love all at once. (Mud, poop and Fire.)
In 1994 I started working for a potter in Cambridge and a couple of
years later was working for another potter in
like learning by trial and error. Its taken me a couple of years of trying all kinds of things to get the results I wanted in my smoke firing. Different poops, salts, oxides and wood. So I go from one extreme to another; the smoke fired pots are rustic, experimental and unpredictable with explosions, cracks and no color. Then the dresses are dainty, elegant and delicate. Raku firing can have its ups and downs as well with cracking, explosions and awful color. I’ve picked two of the oldest ways of firing (there are many others) because that’s exciting to me to have the fire respond directly to the work.
(Raku and smoke firing are explained in the techniques pages.)
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Copyright 2005 The Barefoot Potter.
All pottery shown in this site - created by Natalie Prévost-Mero.