It’s been a long, creative journey that all started in January 2023 when I was also looking for guidance. I would sit in my living room chair during the Rocky Mountain winter and illustrate 1-4 tarot cards in one evening. Slowly, a theme started to emerge and I began to think bigger – what if I professionally printed this deck to share with others?

Why I Started Drawing Tarot Cards

My first tarot deck was EARTH CHILD by Alyson Davies. I loved the art in her tarot deck and I found that the vibes within the deck were gentle and not spooky. This approach opened my mind to the possibilities of tarot decks for conversations with friends and family AND the knowledge shared by tarot deck creators.

I slowly worked away at drawing the cards and thinking deeply about the message intended by the cards. Coincidentally, I bought “A Little Bit of Tarot” by Cassandra Eason out of curiosity when I was on a trip to New York City (from the famous Books Are Magic bookstore). I also studied the structure of the tarot deck with the book “The Creative Tarot” by Jessa Crispin, who approached the card structure with the structure of storytelling. 

I could see that the tarot deck can be a tool to help us connect with ourselves and each other. It doesn’t have to be serious or spooky – but it can be light-hearted and inspire deep conversations about the mysteries of life.

What’s the point of tarot cards? 

The point of my tarot deck is to inspire connection and bring focus to the knowledge that surrounds us, especially in nature. After a tarot reading, I think we are a little more observant of our surroundings and what is happening in our lives, both big and small. That surely can’t be a bad thing.

The Four Suits

When I looked at the traditional four suits, I decided to shake it up a little bit with my interpretation. Out came these four suits inspired by the art forms of writing, pottery, as well as nature. You will notice a lot of Canmore and Western Canadian animals and landscapes nestled into this deck.

Suit of Wands (Willows): The suit of creativity and inspiration. My favourite suit as I believe in the power of creativity for our individual and collective wellbeing. Willows represent seasonal change – air, bright, new, soft. Being present to what is happening around us. Feeling reinvigorated and inspired by the world!

Suit of Cups (Pottery): Cups is a suit about love and connecting with others. Pottery is that way too. A lot of personality, love, and consideration goes into each piece made by a potter. Each piece is also created to be enjoyed by another person over and over again. Pots tend to outlast the potter, just like love.

Suit of Swords (Pens): In the modern era, I believe that the pen can be a sword. The pen and our intellect can help us work towards a better world. It’s important to say what we mean and do what we say. Acting with intention and integrity makes for a peaceful life.

Suit of Tentacles (Pentacles): The suit of finances and responsibilities. I choose to symbolize Pentacles with Tentacles since responsibilities seem to wrap around us. Responsibilities may feel restrictive but at their best, they can also hold us and protect us to live healthy and safe lives in relation to others.

The Major Arcana

I started drawing the Major Arcana after the four suits. At this point, I would read the title of the card I had to draw, look it up in Eason’s book, and then I would sit until an image came to my mind. There are animals, people, concepts, plants, and landscapes. I fully acknowledge that these images are biased toward my own life experiences and cultural upbringing. But, I hope that perspective makes it fun. 

The Kickstarter

If you are thinking about trying out tarot for yourself (or as a really fun dinner party activity!) – try PLAYFUL BEINGS. It’s light-hearted and a super fun way to have some different conversations with the peeps in your life.

I had a wonderful opportunity in January to take an Intaglio Printmaking course at artsPlace in Canmore, AB with artist Alison Brown. I had never heard of intaglio printmaking but I fell in love with it from the first class. This technique seemed to unlock a skill in my hands I didn’t know I had… realistic nature!

What is Intaglio Printmaking?

If you would like to know more about the technique of Intaglio printmaking, the Britannica has a great and short overview.

How to Start Intaglio Printmaking

First, if you have the opportunity to take a local class – do it! This was so relaxing and fun. I met so many nice people from my community and it was fantastic to see what amazing art they created.

What I really loved about this process is that there is a lot of opportunity to make art out of recyclable materials that one could easily find around the house.

All you need for materials is:

• Intaglio Ink
• Old cardboard
• Paper
• Plastic sheets (1mm thick) for etching
• A compass for carving (or other sharp scratchy tool)
• Newspaper
• Water
• A printmaking roller press

Here’s a handy video that I watched before my class and I found it very helpful!

This print was inspired by a feature in National Geographic on the endangered monarchs.

Tips for Intaglio

• Don’t be afraid to apply ink in a “painterly fashion” I was surprised how much depth this added to my fairly simple etchings.
• Look for inspiration in magazines and books.
• Go out of your comfort zone – your hands my surprise you!
• Don’t be afraid to trace – your style will still come through in your etching as well as your ink application.
• Don’t use too much ink.
• and, don’t go too hard on the cleaning of your etched plate!

Most of these prints were inspired by the January 2024 issue of National Geographic magazine.

If you are a nature photographer and interested in collaborating with me – shoot me an email. I would love to do more of this type of work!

This practical pottery jar design has a hidden talent – the lid is also a plate to hold cookies for tea time!

I learned how to throw this jar in a pottery class at artsPlace with Cam Fisher (a brilliant potter and teacher!) He showed our class how to use a rib to push out the walls make a nice voluminous jar belly as well as a really easy approach to creating rims that have strong support from the walls of the jar.

The was a glaze mistake at the studio, which worked in my favour as it was a brilliant cobalt blue! I decided to glaze with just this colour and see how it broke on the texture I created with a toothed rib. I practiced waxing diligently since I was using a light clay body and I’m mostly happy with the results – a bold and clean look!

Once again, this lid was inspired by Japanese pottery techniques – the knob of the lid is also the foot of a plate. Say what? The lid doubles as a plate to hold cookies. The knob is based off of the spiral shell foot technique. It’s pretty enough to be shown as a lid but also a sturdy practical base to hold cookies at tea time.

And, the jar holds a ton of cookies! This jar was my first big personal pottery win of 2023 and I predict it will live on our kitchen counter for a long time.

I was lucky enough to create them in my friend Danielle’s garage where she has a little pottery studio. We try to get together on a regular basis to work on pottery and I am so grateful for her kindness and friendship. It’s so fun to watch and learn from her pottery practice; she is wonderful to collaborate and brainstorm with.

Back to the dinner plates, I decided to throw a different shape this time and it was much simpler without a flange. However, it wasn’t all easy. I learned a big lesson in the fragility of greenware plates while moving them on the drying shelves. I must have broken 2 or 3 over the course of a few weeks and had to rethrow them. But, I think that practice did me a lot of good in form and throwing technique. In the end, I only have 5 dinner plates instead of 6 in this set, but that works for me.

I thought that the gritty feel of this clay body would also be a design addition for a grippy surface for the outside and bottom of the plates. I tend to design pottery dishes for easy transport from kitchen to table. Aesthetically, I also wanted to highlight the granite clay by leaving the plate lip bare to meet the turquoise glaze I choose for the plate well. I kept the glazing simple with one colour – Mayco Norse Blue -to mimic where water meets the granite stone of the mountain.

These dinner plates were thrown 10″ in diameter and they shrunk to be about 9.5″ after glaze firing. I feel 9 to 9.5″ is an elegant size for a dinner plate. And by some miracle, they all stack despite being created over several weeks and trimmed slightly differently.

If you are experiencing some challenges with your pottery dinner plates, all I can say is keep going! It was worth all the planning, throwing, trimming, and plate breakage to get this set.

Steep thyself in a bowl of summertime.

– Virgil, Minor Poems

Over the spring, as I puttered away at my pottery, I dreamt of a bowl. A big bowl that could hold a big salad for a dinner party of four. Or, curly pasta noodles slathered in butter and salt for cozy nights in with my partner. A big bowl worthy of holding the centre of a table.

At the same time, I was reading The Anthropology of Turquoise by Ellen Meloy. This is a beautifully written book of essays about humans and their evolving relationship to nature over history. It was funny, knowledgeable, and poetic. It took me almost a year to read – I would read an essay and have to sit with it, sometimes for a month or more, before I was ready to read another.

Her descriptions of turquoise water and the rocks along the river of the “Four Corners” in the Southwest US. I aimed to capture that colour and vibe in the glaze of this bowl. She spoke of the pottery of the Mohave and I found that they had distinct coil pots. I searched my photos of inspiring pottery and found that I had the privilege to see Anasazi pottery when I visited New York City back in 2019.

After I visited the Met, I had questions about the repatriation of such precious Indigenous artifacts (including a mind-blowing collection of Haida Gwaii art) but that is another blog post entirely.

Building the Coil Bowl

My design was born – a coil pottery bowl, with a turquoise belly and an organic, matte outside for holding.

Roiling the coils to create this bowl took hours. I used another bowl shape as a form and wrapped it newspaper to form my coils around it. I was nervous that the coils were going to look sloppy as rolling consistently and arranging nicely row by row is very challenging.

I used my pottery rib to smoosh the inside of the bowl for a smooth surface and waffled if I should smoosh for the outside as well. In the end, I decided to keep the outside coil texture as it reminded me of a woven basket and I felt like it would provide nice grip for holding the bowl when it is full of delicious food.

Glazing the Pottery

For the glaze, I wanted to pair rough, matte earthy look with the inside of the bowl being a “pool of turquoise”. For the outside, I used Mayco Winter Wood and the inside I did a base layer of Winter Wood and topped with Mayco Norse Blue.

So far, it’s been a been a good salad bowl and the outside is indeed good for gripping

This past spring, I took a pottery class with Connie Pike, a professional potter from Alberta, who taught us how to use linocut carvings to make interesting patterns in our pottery creations. I ended up creating a simple wave pattern that was loosely based off of Japanese technique and aesthetic.

At the end of class, she challenged us to make a quick test mug with our new patterns in different style. In that process, I created a prototype of a three-footed slab built mug. Over the summer months, I refined the design and created a paper template in order to make a set.

Animal Mug Design

My gut instinct name for this design is the “Animal Mug”. I don’t think there are any animals out there that start with three feet but after some research there are many animals that use a “tripod stance” to rest, as it requires no energy be to stable.

• Meercats
• Woodpeckers
• 6-legged insects who use an “alternating tripod gait”
• Parrots
• Kangaroos

A time-out with a hot beverage is also a moment of rest – and rest feels best when its stable! So, I’ve dubbed it “animal mug”, and thus the name will stay!

The mugs really benefit from the stable triangle base and the pushed out “mug belly” feels satisfying in the palm of my hand. Each mug holds 230mL of tea or coffee with room for milk or cream.

Nature Textures

This first set of mugs really is dominated by my love of texture and patterns found in nature.

I started experimenting with a rolling pin with vines and leaves as well as a texture roller of a topographic map. I also found my homemade flower stamp and gave that a try. I had so much fun following my instincts. I feel I have more confidence in slab-building to pursue new shapes that pop into my mind and challenge my design skills.

As I reflect and use the mugs, I am reminded of the complexities of nature; beauty, power, fragility, change, adaptation. For “Flower Mug” the melting glaze on the flowers represents our collective responsibility to address climate change. As I run my fingers over the texture, I’m reminded that nature touches all aspects of my life.

The Seashell mug was imprinted with shells I’ve collected over time and various trips. I love how the glaze pools in the indents.

The mugs nourish and care for me and also act as a micro example of the influence of nature in my life overall. They are a gentle reminder as I am resting to contemplate how will I give back to nature and all its creatures for the sustenance and inspiration it provides me.

Creating Sets Workshop with John Borrowman

I took a wonderful weekend workshop at ArtsPlace in Canmore with well-known potter and former town Mayor, John Borrowman. In his class I learned how to throw a flange, which I found immensely satisfying. For my first set, I decided to go with the flange design, despite my “typical” preference for minimalism, mostly because of the fun I had throwing them. It’s curious – the styles I don’t find aesthetically appealing are more fun to create so I’m finding as my pottery journey continues, my style is also evolving.

I think it is also beneficial to try different styles and know the techniques that might not be your favourite – you never know where your creative journey will take you.

How Much Clay Do I Need to Throw a Plate?

It’s shocking, but for me, it is 4 pounds for one plate. Then, there is a lot of room to trim the bottom of your plate for an attractive foot and to mimic the curve of the surface of the plate.

Extra Tools You Will Find Helpful to Make Plates

• Calipers
• Long Rib
• Throwing Bats

How to Support a Dramatic Flange

I found out the hard way that it was best to throw as wide as possible for the plate surface. From there, it’s important when you pull the rim up and out for the flange that you will have enough vertical support from the bottom of the plate to support and keep the flange from drooping. You can see the droop I have in two of my plates in the photos below.

What Size Should Your Plates Be?

My plates were thrown to be 10 inches in diameter including the flange. So, this set has 8 inch diameter of eating space and 2 inch wide flange. Honestly, they are too small to be a dinner plate. It’s like a really fancy and heavy side plate. I like smaller plate sizes to keep my portion sizes reasonable but I think they are too small for my partner or dinner guests.

Next time, I would want to calculate 10 inches of eating surface and then add the flange.

Lessons Learned for Trimming with Stacking in Mind

Here is an example of bad stacking. At least, I’m not satisfied with it and feel there is room for a lot of improvement.

Here’s where I think I went wrong:

• Documenting the sizes of my previous plates and making sure to throw to that size with the caliper tool. I think I did one of these by “feel”. You can see here that the top plate is smaller than the rest of the set.
• Next time, I will use calipers or a ruler to increase consistency of size in foot trimming so the plates can nest nicely. John Borrowman used a wide jar lid; he placed that in the middle of the bottom of the plate and trimmed around it to create the plate foot. It’s a cool trick and good for consistency.

Lessons with Glazes and Clay Bodies

As you can see here, these two plates are different despite having used the same glaze.

I used Rutile glaze and White glaze with the same thickness. The difference is the purple-hue Rutile (see right plate) is on M370 by Plainsman and the Rutile turquoise hue (see left plate) is on M340 by Plainsman. I never would have expected such a dramatic difference in the glazes on these clay bodies and I learned an important lesson for the future if I want strong consistency in the set.

Questions to Ask Yourself Before Making a Plate Set

• How would I like to “frame my meal” with the plate?
• What shape do I want? How much food do I typically have in a serving? Ask family members too.
  • Do I want a flange to rest bread on? Or as a big frame for the meal?
  • Do I want a different shape to hold a certain cuisine? Japanese? Indian? Try to do some research into their pottery traditions.
• Is this an every day dinner set or do I want to create set for special occasions?
• Do I have enough clay for the amount of plates I want to make? Have extra clay for some duds.

Hopefully, later this year I will have a more successful set to share but in any case, I learned a lot from this first attempt.

To fit the space, I knew that it had to be medium size. Additionally, the lamp would have longevity if it was glazed white to go with any décor changes in the future. Then, it can be easily updated by just buying a new lampshade. I also wanted the base to be fairly heavy and sturdy so there would be no danger of it falling.

Planning and Measurement

I started by quickly drawing some forms that I had in mind for my lamp. From watching The Great Pottery Throwdown, I knew that I had to be diligent about my measurements and factor in shrinkage in the kiln. The plan was that my lamp would have the height, width, and diameter of 7 inches. My neck opening for the socket was to be about 2 inches and I could bet on 15% shrinkage after glaze fire.

For symmetry, I was planning for a lampshade of 7 inches. Finally, I looked up the availability of lamp wiring kits and found that they are common at hardware stores or Amazon.

Throwing the Lamp

I got to class, set up my wheel, and measured out 4 pounds of clay. As I’m not a very strong thrower yet, 4 pounds was quite a challenge to keep under control. By accident, I managed to get an interesting base shape. My instructor encouraged me to keep going and try to pull the clay as high as I could go. That turned out to be about 7 inches but I knew with shrinkage that I needed to get it up to 8.2 inches. There is a spot where the clay collapsed in itself a bit, but I decided to go with it as part of my handmade, unfiltered aesthetic.

With some consultation from my instructor, we decided that I should use coils to create the neck of my lamp and then I could control the size of the opening better.

The Lamp Socket Opening

This felt like the trickiest part and I gave it my full attention. In my research before class, I learned that 2 inches would be a good size. Looking back on this now, I see there are ways around this with wiring (see video under Wiring the Lamp). I made sure the shape was round so the socket could properly fit.

One week later, once it was leather-hard, I removed extra clay and made sure it was level on the top and the bottom for sturdiness. My form is a closed bottom so after it was leather-hard, I used a hole cutter tool in 5/16 of an inch for my cord hole.

Decoration and Texture

When it came time for carving and decoration, my favourite part, I already had an nature vibe in mind. I was thinking about a rock in a creek and how it is smoothed by water over time. So, I started by smoothing the clay with a roller tool. After I finished rolling I felt like the lamp base needed some more visual interest. Then, I decided to carve in choppy ripple shapes on the bottom and the top. In the middle I carved vertical lines to draw the eye up and down.

Glazing the Pottery Lamp

My main vibe goal was to keep it simple so the base would POP against my “grizzly bear brown” walls in my bedroom. Incidentally, the rocks in the creek by my home have a white hue due to the minerals in the water in Canmore. In order to highlight the texture, my instructor mentioned that lightly washing your pots before glazing can result in a thinner glaze. I tried it and it worked out great.

Wiring the Pottery Lamp

I had my eyes on a lamp wiring kit and figured this was going to be pretty easy. Once I was at the wiring stage, my partner encouraged me to do a little more research and I’m glad I did. I found this fantastic YouTube tutorial that went over the wiring really well and opened my eyes to other approaches for next time.

So, I went to Canadian Tire, found the bits I needed and got to it! It was fairly simple and with the help of this YouTube video, I felt pretty confident.

Choosing a Lampshade

In choosing a pattern lampshade, I knew I wanted a calming vibe and a fabric that would cast a warm, cozy light for reading. It took a couple of weeks of cruising Etsy to find what I was looking for. Eventually, the Etsy algorithm tune in to what I was searching for and made discovering different lampshade makers easier. Turns out the United Kingdom has a lot of lampshade makers!

The shade I choose continues the Japanese inspiration that I’ve had all Spring. When it arrived I found that it was the perfect size. However, the 7 inch shade didn’t work with my 8 inch harp that came in my lamp kit. I ended up ordering an additional 7 inch lamp harp and that fixed it.

On the whole, I’m so happy with this project and I will be making more pottery lamps in the future.

I’ve made new friends who push me to keep learning and trying hard things. We problem-solve together and share tools and books. It’s the greatest. I’m now at a crossroads of melding “in-class” and “at-home” pottery – how can I make it work in terms of functional space, time, and … cupboard space.

I want both – more freedom in my pottery creation and build my technical skills from instructors. I recently read that “pots tend to outlast the potter,“ so I’m also sorting through what I even want to create and for what purpose.

Wheel throwing does not come naturally to me. On one hand, its so frustrating that much of my stuff doesn’t turn out how I want them to but on the other, my wheel-thrown pottery seems to be my creative style “unfiltered”. What is “unfiltered” to me?

• off-centre (literally and figuratively)
• loose
• personal
• textured

This sake-set was inspired in part by the challenges in “The Great Pottery Throwdown” and a trip I took to Japan in 2017. I was reading The Japanese Pottery Handbook and felt inspired by the underglaze technique sometsuke or 染め付け which is blue and white decoration. I also narrowed down on my set shapes using this book and melding my “off-centre” vibes.

The whole process included a fair amount of research and preparation when I look back on it.

• Studying photos of Japanese ceramics I saw our on 2017 trip.
• Reading about techniques and shapes in pottery books.
• Drawing and drafting cup and carafe designs.
• Calculating sizes and how much liquid the carafe and cups should hold.
• Researching traditional Japanese decorative designs.
• Curating my own illustrations from photos and experiences and my love for Yayoi Kusama and her exhibit “My Eternal Soul” that I saw in Tokyo in 2017.

Lessons Learned

Shape & Function

The shape and rim of my carafe are not ideal for pouring, which defeats the purpose and function of the set. This is a let-down but an important lesson that the rim of the carafe subtly tilts outward rather than inward. The top cup also would be better if it held the amount intended for each sake cup (which would be about 45 mL). I do like the feel of the carafe in my hand!

I threw my sake cups “off the hump” and they had a lot of variation in size. I also trimmed some of them too thin and my fish cup had a hole in the bottom. I sadly didn’t notice this prior to testing it out and my friend noticed all her sake drip out of her cup, not once but twice, before we figured out there was a hole at the bottom. RIP fish cup.

Firing

I also need throw bigger than I expect too account for kiln shrinkage. My carafe only holds 150 mL and the standard size is 180 mL (or restaurant size is 360 mL) according to The Japanese Pottery Handbook. I think this comes down to documenting my pottery size at each stage and calculating the shrinkage at the end. Of course, I don’t have any benchmarks from this project – dang!

Decoration

I don’t really like the transparent glaze over the underglaze as it makes the illustrations less sharp. It also seems like the transparent glaze I used has a hint of white in it that has left a bit of a iridescence on the pot in random spots. I’m considering throwing with a lighter coloured clay for this technique next time. However, I am really happy with my illustrations and the Amaco underglazes.

Overall, my throwing skills need a lot of improvement and sadly, I think that can only be fixed by time on the wheel. Hence, my “what’s next” pottery crossroads. I am happy I took on this challenging project and I have a fondness for it, despite it’s flaws. As Lynda Barry says, your art exists whether you or someone else likes it or not.

Kanpai 乾杯!

Sketchnote Explainer

Angelique introduced a new change growth chart that I really liked based on the work of Dr. Andrew M. Ibrahim. It was adapted a bit and in the session we did a really short online quiz to see where we were in the change process.

They shared different listening lenses that reflected unconscious bias to be aware of when listening to someone’s story, which include vulnerability, courage, letting go, and your own narratives. Angelique also emphasized situational awareness and by practicing and developing our own, we will increase our problem-solving skills.

Then, Julian Wilson shared his experience and a moving poem about his identity formation and how that relates to being anti-racist. We reflected on his work with breakout rooms – but there was a twist – Angelique said, “We have a variety of rooms to reflect that we all have a choice and we can create dialogues that are trauma-informed.” This was fantastic.

At the end, the group created their own list of ways to encourage anti-racism in the workplace and Angelique shared her ideas under the themes of

• Unpack Together – create space for you, staff, and leadership to discuss anti-racism.
• Educate Everyone – do not settle for standardized policies. Have a budget to train all.
• Empower Staff – support staff in leading change. Have EDI paid positions in your organization.

I learned so much in this 60 minute session and would recommend Angelique and Julian’s session to any organization.

Links:

• Angelique Bulosan’s website
• Grown to Growth Zones visual based on Dr. Andrew M. Ibrahim (Twitter)
• UAlberta Event page
• My previous sketchnotes