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Four of Canada’s celebrated potters, Harlan House, Kirk Creed, Gordon Hutchens, and Wayne Ngan, have set admirable examples of how to build a sustainable life as a ceramic artist. They believe that what one creates will add value to another’s life and be treasured by future generations, not discarded to become part of the local landfill when a trend has passed. Along with many others, they were embracing green practices before the term became fashionable. Reuse, repurpose, and recycle are the keystones of their life.
In 1974, the city of Calgary targeted Harlan House,s studio for demolition. As a result, Harlan and his wife, Maureen, settled in the small village of Lonsdale, Ontario. Over the course of four decades, the couple used all the ingenuity they could muster to transform the village’s old timber hotel into their home and its carriage house into Harlan’s studio.
When it comes to tools, Harlan just has to look at a found material to figure out if it can be repurposed. He bought up an entire box of stainless steel bicycle spokes one day. They are perfect for shaping the rims of his large platters as they are drying on their bats. The bonus is that there is never the rust that comes with using other types of metal for trimming and shaping.
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