St.Albert Potters’ Guild: CLAY TIME - A study in patience, Zen and squishiness

Forgotten what calm feels like? You might want to consider taking a pottery class. To do that, look no further than the St. Albert Potters’ Guild. Intimidated? Don’t let the word guild scare you. Snobbish these 60 members are not. These are adults with a passion to create and a desire to let their inner child get messy again. Like knitting, pottery and other popular-again crafts aren’t instant like texts, online searches and pod coffee machines. They’re a study in patience. And those who partake enjoy the sense of calm it brings to this frazzled world of faster is better. When earth, air, water and fire align, the potter finds his or her moment of Zen. Enter the St. Albert Potters’ Guild, the messier side of meditation. Take a look.

Pottery has been around for centuries. If you ask St. Albert Potters’ Guild President Jan Goodwin why, she’ll tell you it’s simple: we all like something tangible to show at the end of a process—and the sense of accomplishment it brings. Though every guild member has a different story as to why they started, for Jan, it was to shake up the schedule she’d fallen into. But there’s another key benefit attracting newcomers to this craft: it’s meditative. To make a single piece—start to finish—involves a fair amount of focus, quiet observation and patience. In an age of instant messaging and 24/7 connectivity, that’s a really nice change.

Creating a piece of pottery is about a two-week process of steps. To begin, you wedge the clay, eradicating unwanted bubbles that could explode in the kiln. Next, you “throw” your portion of clay onto a wheel and begin to centre it by manipulating the mound with your hands and water. As Margaret Belec, the Guild’s spring sale coordinator warns, that isn’t always easy: “Sometimes you argue with the clay, perhaps winning the argument, perhaps not.” Next, your clay shape air-dries on a rack to what’s called “leather-hard” (which is still quite brittle). Then comes the bisque—the piece goes into an electric kiln that evaporates all residual moisture. Glazing is next, followed by firing. Firing the glaze takes three days: the kiln heats up, the heat makes the glaze shiny and then everything cools down. The last step? Admiring your work—and patience.

The St. Albert Potters’ Guild Spring Sale is always an anticipated event. People arrive early, scout their favourite pieces and then guard them like sentries until the clock strikes sale time. The 2016 sale is April 28th, with sales from the “All Creatures Great and Small” pieces going to ovarian cancer research. Can’t wait? Visit W.A.R.E.S. in St. Albert Place for a great selection of work from the Guild, or why not take a class at the St. Albert Art Gallery? Once you have some classes under your belt, you could apply to the St. Albert Potters’ Guild. Be forewarned though, there’s a waiting list. Your first lesson in the art of patience… t8n

“The first time I centred clay it was like… this is so Zen. All those meditation classes—this is what they wanted.”

–Jan Goodwin, President St. Albert Potters’ Guild

“I am amazed that this simple piece of organic matter—a lump of clay taken from the ground—can be transformed into a functional vessel or a piece of sculpture, all the work of my hands!”

–Margaret Belec, Spring Sale Coordinator, St. Albert Potters’ Guild