By Brian Mason

In early 2003 I had my first tour of a working pottery studio, Elaine White’s in the former Xchanges Artists’ Gallery in VicWest. It was a rough, dusty, whitewashed space haphazardly filled with pottery wheels, kilns, rickety shelving, glaze-spattered tables and assorted untidy work surfaces. A dozen potters shared the room. Until then, and as Elaine explained during my tour, I had never realized how many difficult steps are needed to transform hunks of wet clay into finished ceramic pieces. Form and beauty do not come easily in this medium. At each one of the steps – wedging, throwing, drying, trimming, bisquing (the first kiln firing), glaze mixing, glazing, firing, reglazing, refiring – just about anything and everything can go wrong – and frequently does. “The hammer,” as pottery master Robin Hopper once put it, “is the potter’s best friend” for quickly and discretely disposing of the mistakes (though, as I know now, they make attractive garden ornaments, too).

Pottery “chose” Elaine while she was studying a variety of art forms at Sheridan College near Toronto over 15 years ago. She had returned to school then as part of a healing process following a difficult personal time. Freedom and creativity converged as Elaine embraced the tactile, soothing medium of clay, which has never stopped challenging her. Since graduating from Sheridan and later moving to Victoria in 2002, Elaine has continued to immerse herself – usually up to her elbows – in this muddy endeavour. She is active in both the Garden City Potters and the South Vancouver Island Potters’ Guild, has studied at the Metchosin International Summer School of the Arts and completed numerous pottery workshops.

Today, Elaine shares a beautiful, spacious, sunlit studio – still dusty, nonetheless, an inescapable hazard of working with clay – with two other skilled potters. At least three days a week, and more frequently in the lead-up to a gallery show or art walk, Elaine heads excitedly for her studio to try out new forms, new glazes and new ideas. “I usually have a good day in the studio,” she says. “You’re playing with mud; how can you not have fun?”

Elaine works mainly with brown, terracotta clay that she fires at mid-range (around 1200 degrees Celsius) in an electric kiln. Occasionally she gets to fire at higher temperatures using different clays and unusual glazes in a friend’s propane kiln. And sometimes she treats herself to a smokey, outdoor raku firing with fellow potters. Potters are like that, a sharing bunch – except when it comes to revealing their much-prized glaze recipes, which they guard as they would the phone number of a reliable babysitter.

Elaine’s pottery is functional, intended for everyday use and enjoyment in the home, as her many friends and family members can attest. Not for her the world of abstract forms. Lately, she has begun to appreciate the connection between her earthy medium and the diverse environmental and simple-living movements taking shape on Vancouver Island. Slow food...certified organic...sustainable, local agriculture...100 Mile Diet: Elaine believes in these movements and they inspire her work. She would like to see everyone eating nutritious, locally-grown products using handmade ware. “Perhaps my pottery can help accomplish this, and I hope people get as much joy from using it as I do creating it,” she says.

Since my first visit to Elaine’s studio, I have become a much greater part of her life in art: we were married in 2005. I have watched her throwing skills on the wheel improve to create lighter-weight and more subtly complex forms. Her past reluctance to get serious about creating her own, unique glaze recipes has disappeared. Though still wary of mysterious chemical brews, she appreciates the alchemy of glazing and its importance to the finished piece. In her own words, “Form comes quickly when working on the wheel, a process I enjoy, though the journey to a final glazed product is not always an easy one.” As you will soon be able to see for yourself, her finished pieces – the ones that escaped the judgment of the hammer – are easily worth the many creative steps involved.

Elaine White will be one of the artists featured in the fifth annual James Bay Art Walk on September 5 and 6, 2009.