Yesterday we took advantage of the second of the Dunster Museum’s “Discovery Visits”. The event is set up so that Robson Valley residents can see some of the really creative things their neighbors are privately doing. The first of the visits dealt with the exotic succulent plants David Milne was propagating, Yesterday’s event was also at Milne’s but its focus was on the amazing sculptural ceramics that Lyuba Milne has been making in her studio.
Lyuba doesn’t use a potter’s wheel, instead all of her work is hand built, using either slabs of clay or coils. Her experimenting with clay has led to an extremely wide variety of shapes and textures in her creations. In the photo above Lyuba introduces, explains, and gives an overview of her ceramic endeavors.
The picture below was taken in the glazing area of her studio where Lyuba is explaining the hundreds of glazes made by David Milne and the multitude of experimental sample firings are needed before she decides on which glaze to use on her pieces. The photo at the very bottom shows just one set of the hundreds of glaze samples that have been test-fired in the kiln.
Ceramics is such a complex and unforgiving art form. What clay to use? How should I construct it so it won’t collapse or crack during the firing? What temperature should be used in the kiln so that the glaze turns out the way I expect it to? After all of those considerations, the piece can still fall apart or not turn out properly.
It takes a huge amount of thought, time, patience, and luck for Lyuba’s creations to turn out as spectacular and beautiful as they are. I will have some more shots from our visit to Lyuba’s ceramic studio on tomorrow’s blog.
You can see my paintings at: davidmarchant2.ca
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