Cathy Gifford has some advice for anyone taking one of her clay workshops: “Dress for mess!”
It’s not only that clay is essentially a messy medium, and that the workshops are hands-on. There’s also paint involved; kids are invited to paint the clay before it’s fired and then dipped in a clear glaze and fired again, to make the colours pop.
It is a messy process – but fun!
Gifford has been operating Burnt Offerings pottery studio “since dinosaurs roamed the earth,” she said. That translates into about 30 years.
It was 30 years ago that she was downsized, “a product of a corporate takeover,” Gifford said. “I’ve never looked back. I have the funnest job in the entire world.”
That job is creating with clay in her studio, and teaching others to do the same, through workshops held at schools, libraries, retirement and nursing homes.
“Big kids like to do this, too,” she said, noting that her Senior students have as much fun as young kids. “Especially the ones with mobility issues,” she said, because she brings the clay to them, in her 'Clay-mobile', and shows them how to make mugs and bowls.
“They love that – they have their tea in their own little mugs that they made,” Gifford said.
On Tuesday, a clay workshop was held at the Bradford West Gwillimbury Public Library, and 20 young potters came out to make fairies or gargoyles, following Gifford’s instructions.
“They are always successful,” she marvelled. “There’s not one person who said, I don’t know what to do… I really like what I’m seeing. You guys are doing a ridiculously amazing job!”
Gifford was a resident of Bradford for 10 years. For the past seven, she has lived and worked in Newmarket – but told the kids that she always enjoys coming back to the community.
As they painted their creations, she reminded them to make sure each piece was signed, that they washed their hands, and that they remembered to come back to pick up the fired works in two weeks, at the library.
And as the workshop wrapped up, parents were greeted with the cry, “Come see what I made!”
For more information on Burnt Offerings Studio and its workshops, visit here, email [email protected], or call 905-830-POTS (7687).
