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PAGE 14,WEDNESDAY.DECEMBER Il. 1985 WIITBY FREE PRESS Photos bySusanLesjak Local potter brings life to clay By SUSAN LESJAK Free Press Staff "It's ail in the way you hold your mouth," said the vibrant red- head, expounding her latest theory on how to get life into her ceramic pots. "If your mouth is ten- se when you throw the clay, your body will be too. And you'il end up with tight lifeless ports. "If you're loose and having a good old time listening to jazz as you throw, you'll find you won't have dominated the pot into existence." For Brooklin potter Sooz Wells, the art of making exciting pottery lies in the tenuous balance between the ar- tist exercising her will on the clay and the clay working its force on the artist. "I'm only just star- ting to figure it out now, and I've been working with clay for il years," she remarks wiping some slip from her brow. "At first when you begin, you attack the clay. Next you learn how to work with it and not against it. Finally, if everything comes together, you're no longer working with the clay, but it's working with you." As one watches her work, clay flying to the soft whirr of the potter's wheel, one can almost sense what she's saying. Centering the clay on the wheel, her fingers gently coax the pot into existence. Pinched here, pulled there, the walls are gradually raised and from a lump of clay, emerges a splendidly curved "object d'art," still wet and fragile. Once the pot has been thrown, there are dozens of things that must still be done to it before it's ready to go on the shelf in Well's pot- tery shop, adjoining her studio. The piece must be dried overnight in a "damp cupboard," (so it won't crack), trim- med and then fried in an electric kiln for eight hours at "bisque tem- perature" (2000 degress F). Once the pot has been cooled and unloaded from the kiln, Wells prepares the glaze mixed from scratch with powdered chemicals taken from the hundreds of bins in her work room. Coming up with a glaze that pleases her isn't easy, and Wells may test fire dozens of sample tiles, to discover the glaze she is after. Mixed with water, the chemicals are applied to the pots with a brush, an air gun or simply dipped into the vat of the liquid color. When working with the glazes - some of them quite toxic until they are fired - Wells dons a rubber mask and heavy industrial gloves. Further decoration, such as brushstrokes or wax resist patterns are added once the glaze has dried. While many potters continually work from the same one or two designs, Wells finds such repetitous tough to take. For her, every pot must be different, in both shape and color, or "going into the studio ceases to be fun." Her work has gone through countless stylistic changes over the years. For a time, decoration was viewed as "taboo" and all her pots were glazed uniformly. Later on, wild swashes of color adorned everything she produced. Her latest passion is "floppy lipped bowls," which are pinched and softly tucked in at the lip, and fall in intriguing folds around the base of the pot when fired. Experimentation is something Wells bas engaged in ever since she first studied pottery at East Lansing Art Workshop in Michigan. "In those days throwing clay against the wall was all the rage," she explained. Her daring, iconoclastic approach to ceramies can also be seen in her firing techniques. After pots are glazed, they require a second firing lasting anywhere from one hour to a whole day. While many potters will use only one kiln, Wells has three: a reduction kiln (which takes months to throw enough pots to fili), a smaller salt kiln and an oriental raku kiln. While the first allows her to produce the soft subtle hues that charac- terize her glazes, the latter two allow her to create a wide range of surface textures. The salt kiln (in which sait is actually blown with the family vacuum cleaner), creates a mot- tied or "orange peel" texture. The technique, which dates back to 16th century Germany, requires no chemical coloring, the glaze is created in the firing through the interaction of the salt and the heat. Raku, a process per- fected over centuries by the Japanese, involves the removal of the pot from the kiln while it is still red-hot. It is then thrust into a garbage can filled with saw dust. When the saw dust smokes, the carbon it produces enters the pores of the pot where the glaze has not penetrated, creating grey crackled lines. The result is a fragile delicacy, unlike anything that can be produced through a Western firing process. Wells' pots can be viewed at The Village Pottery Shop on Hwy. 7. one block west of Hwy. 12. The shop is open from noon to early evening Tuesday through Friday, and Saturday 10to 12 p.m. Right now, she's got a wide selection of coffee mugs, herb containers, plates, oven dishes, bowls and vases - fired and decorated in a multitude of styles. Prices are well below what you'd pay at the average commercial pottery outlet. If you hear the faint whirr of a potter's wheel when you arrive, that means Wells is in the backroom likely coaxing another pot to life ... or if the pot gets onery, maybe throwing it against a wall.