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Arts Profile
All things great require vision.
Rosemary Swan had a vision
when she founded her Gloucester
Pottery School in 1991. From
humble beginnings in the basement
of the Cyrville Community
Centre, with a handful of students,
she and the staff she now
employs have learned a few things
along the way.
For starters, jokes instructor
Alanna Baird, “people like making
mud pies.” Inspired to work in clay
by a high school art teacher in
New Brunswick, today Alanna
inspires others.
Adds Alanna: “This is a wonderful
opportunity for people to
pursue a hobby.”
With her award-winning work
in earthenware and raku exhibited
across Canada, she knows full well
the attraction of the art form —
earth-borne clay beneath wet
hands, formed from nothing into
something, not unlike that used
thousands of years ago.
Creativity in Clay
Gloucester Pottery School
students get into the mud
Rosemary’s dedication to pottery
and to teaching the benefits of
working with clay has attracted participants
of all ages and backgrounds
over the years.
“It can be hard physical work,”
explains student Liza Westwood.
“But it is a very satisfying creative
process.”
PEAK INTO THE
Pottery School
The Gloucester Pottery School
offers more than 48 courses a year
during three eight-week sessions,
which begin every September,
February and April. It operates as a
non-profit organization with a volunteer
board of directors. The
fully equipped studio features 13
electric potter’s wheels, two kilns
and a pugmill.
Classes include basic and
advanced levels on the wheel, as
well as instruction on both handbuilding
and sculpture. In addition
to workshops that focus on specific
BY KAREN SECORD
techniques such as raku, the school
also offers parent and child classes,
March break and summer camps,
and teen- oriented courses.
Anyone 13 years of age and older is
invited to participate in classes on
the wheel.
For those potters who have
moved beyond the basic level, the
studio is available during the day
and evening for practice. A block
of 21 hours can be purchased for
$80, firing and glazing included.
Come 2009, however, the
Gloucester Pottery School will be
in new digs — no pun intended —
Pottery Basics
A natural product, clay is really earth that has decomposed from rock within the earth’s crust for millions of years.
The clay used for pottery is not in its raw form, but rather a mixture of clay and other materials.
Pottery is created by forming a clay body into a shape, heating it to a high temperature in a kiln and, more often
than not, glazing it to obtain a decorative finish. Sometimes this is done using a potter’s wheel; other times it is done by
hand. Both techniques involve a tactile process that is particularly attractive to those who enjoy feeling the texture of their
work — and don’t mind getting their hands dirty.
The most basic tool used in the creative process is the hand. Shaping, rolling, cutting and piercing tools are often
employed in the process. Using the potter’s wheel, artisans form individualized cylinders, which are often designed to
hold a liquid.
Due East Magazine • Page 20 • Summer 2008
when it will be housed, above
ground, in the Orleans Arts
Centre.
It’s a 20-year-dream in the making
for the Orleans arts community
— and the dream took one step
closer to reality on June 20, 2007,
when the sod was finally turned to
mark the start of construction of the
center, a City of Ottawa public-private-partnership
(P3) project.