Hello and Welcome!

I am very pleased to debut my new website, made by the very talented Andrew Pease of By Jove! Consulting Corp. It has been a pleasure to work with someone who has a great aesthetic as well as practical advice. There are still some ends to tie up and details to finish, but please take a look around.

As an introduction, I have been actively involved in pottery for over 15 years in Ontario, Canada. I have had the great fortune to work with and learn from many great local potters in that time, such as George Stewart, Darlene Malcolm-Moran, Scott Walker and Angelo di Petta. I have won the Angelo di Petta Design Award at the Kawartha Potters Guild 2018 Juried Show, “Inspired Mud”, been part of Fusion’s Creative Directions mentorship program in 2016 under Michelle Mendlowitz, and had the great fortune and opportunity to learn with Korean pottery masters for three weeks in Icheon, Korea in 2018. Until the lock down, I was regularly an assistant teacher for our Advanced classes at the Kawartha Potters Guild.

Inside of large bowl carved through white slip to red clay in Persian lattice pattern - Bates
Cordoba – bowl made for 2018 KPG Juried exhibition “Inspired Mud”

Outside of carved bowl. Most of the slip is carved away leaving quatrefoil patterns in relief - Bates
Cordoba bowl – outside

Korean style vase decorated with incised slip techniques in red, black and white and glazed in a green celadon glaze - Bates
Korean style vase made in Icheon, Korea – February 2018

Being the child and grandchild of antique dealers, history has been as much of my life as the present. My Mother was also an amateur Egyptologist leading both to a love of history for me, and the use of the Horus Eye as my maker’s mark. I am a functional ware potter primarily and I split my work between historical and modern. I very much enjoy the challenge that is part of recreating an archaeological piece and do so for folks in the re-enactment communities on a regular basis. However, I also enjoy making modern functional ware, with decoration lifted almost directly or influenced heavily, by historical works.

Syrian 13th c replica plate - painted in blue and black under a clear glaze featuring a dog in silhouette.
Reproduction of a Syrian 13th c find.
Mug and tumbler - red clay with white slip, carved in the style of grecian urns with acanthus vines and a large cat
Mug and tumbler carved in Grecian urn style

With this website, I hope to bring you, via this blog, reflections of being a potter, where my influences come from, process descriptions or certainly anything that might be suggested from you.

For the moment, it is not my intention to have an automated shop via this website. Instead, my gallery will contain examples of my work and may have some current pieces available for sale that can be purchased by contacting me directly.

I also take commissions. Like medieval reproduction, it provides me with design and sometimes construction challenges. Please contact me directly should you have something in mind. Of course, I was hoping, like many others, that this debut would come among a number of shows and markets this year. However, in these interesting times, what I can do is make and continue to work on a smaller scale.

Thank you for visiting, I hope you come back. Stay safe.

Photo of studio workbench complete with helpful cat.
My cat Lhursa likes studio time.