Potters are not interested just in making objects from clay, nor are they only interested in making beautiful objects d’art for others to enjoy and admire.
Any potters worth their weight in clay, will tell you that not only do they love watching the hypnotic potter’s wheel go round and round and not only do they love the process of throwing wood or salt into a large kiln that can withhold temperatures that would vaporize a pizza in a bilk of an eye, but they love collecting other potter’s pots.
Potters make up some of the most avid collectors of pottery from around the world. It is hard for any of our partners to travel without that extra space in the suitcase filled with a gem or two from well-known potters and unknown potters alike.
Sometimes a beautiful tea bowl from Japan that sells for a mortgage payment or two will just have to come home with us, or perhaps we have attended a workshop by an internationally known clay artist who happens to have a few choice pieces to sell at the workshop — pieces we would otherwise never be close enough to touch and hold and one of us just can’t go home without that magnificent serving dish or vase.
All this month of February at the Potters Place at the corner of Fifth and Cliffe in downtown Courtenay, there will be an exhibition of local potters’ favourite pots from their own collections.
They’re calling this exhibition Top Shelf, as these beautiful, sometimes-rare pots are ones they have collected or have treasured. They are the pots they choose to live with and admire on a daily basis. It is their pleasure to be able to share these with the community.
— Potters Place
