By Emily R. Zarevich, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
The act of creation is a very hands-on and participatory process. It takes dedication, discipline, and well-molded knowledge. Sometimes, it requires frequent travel outside of one’s immediate proximity. Janis Mitchell and Savannah Parent are two Toronto-based archeologists and potters who have become closely associated with the city of Burlington via their membership in the Burlington Potters’ Guild, which operates out of the Art Gallery of Burlington on Lakeshore Road. Their motives for becoming attached to Burlington are entirely practical. Described by the pair as “prohibitively expensive,” Toronto’s competitive waiting lists for artist space — along with the exorbitant prices of equipment and supplies — have made it challenging to incorporate pottery into one’s busy big city lifestyle. By taking regular day trips out to Burlington, Mitchell and Parent are able to successfully seek out resources and space for their craft along with a happy and welcome association with a thriving community of potters. Burlington has plenty of clay and plenty of people who want to make it into something decorative, functional, or both.
Parent and Mitchell, with their roaming feet frequently planted on Burlington soil, source “wild” clay, scouting out locations in nature, collecting and processing, and making fine pottery vessels. They fire their wild clay vessels in firepits rather than modern kilns. Parent and Mitchell’s practice is a mix of experimental archaeology and art. And here’s the main experiment: there are tests of clay and temper (material mixed with clay to prevent cracking as a vessel dries and heat-shock during firing). As archaeologists, Mitchell and Parent have a good understanding of the earth and its composition — part of an archaeological dig is identifying the type of earth being excavated — and so assessing their wild clay locations comes naturally. Their knowledge of ancient pottery is also utilized in other steps in the pottery-making process, from sealing a freshly fired pot with a plantain like the ancient South Americans to decorating a pot with a stick wound with cord made from hand-plucked grass.
Parent and Mitchell spoke to me as one collective voice about their work and what goes into the metamorphosis of a solid pot made from quality local clay:
Where in Burlington do you source your clay and why do you choose those locations?
Well, as the name of our River Pots project suggests, we collect most of our materials from the edges of waterways both in Burlington and Toronto. We have deliberately chosen not to share specific locations as we want to avoid encouraging folks to over-exploit these sources. If too many people dig in the same location, or if one takes too much, erosion and other detrimental consequences may be incurred on the riverbeds.
Can you describe the process of extracting usable clay from the Earth?
We are always on the lookout for new locations to sample and test while out hiking or strolling. We track and document each clay we dig. When collecting, we are careful not to take more than a small sample, just enough for one or two pots, and we always try to leave the location the way we found it. Usually, we gather our clay using trowels and a small, curved knife, then carry them home in repurposed yogurt containers or plastic bags. These samples are then saturated with water or “slaked” for several days, sometimes even weeks, while stirring sporadically to create a smooth mixture. When a clay contains a lot of organic material or gravel and sand, we strain it through a sieve, then “levigate” the sample. This process uses water and gravity to separate the clay particles from the other material but results in a very watery clay slurry.
To remove the water, more time and patience are required, as each day a small amount of clear water can be removed from the surface of the clay until a creamy “slip” is achieved. This slip can then be further dried to a workable consistency on plaster slabs. To avoid the clay cracking from thermal shock, a tempering agent is added at a ratio of about 20-30%. We usually try to use crushed granite, sand, or “grog” (crushed fired ceramic). Once this is complete, the clay is allowed to rest for about a week to increase the plasticity. Then, it’s ready to be formed into a pot.
When creating a piece of pottery, do you consider the process or the end result to be more important?
Making things by hand using materials collected and processed using simple, ancient methods is certainly a rewarding experience. As archaeologists, we enjoy the experimental approach to our project and spend a lot of time researching traditional pottery techniques from all over the world. This allows us to ask questions that we can try to answer through our own experimentation with clay, tempers, and firing.
Recently, we travelled to the American Southwest to attend the Annual Southwest Kiln Conference in Cortez, CO. We learned a lot about the way the expert Ancestral Puebloan potters of the region created their beautiful wares, and most importantly, how they were fired in pits dug right into the earth and fuelled with local woods. It’s hard to overstate how excited we are to explore the magic of reduction firing our local clays in the ground! Our real inspiration and drive come from the process, from the riverbed to the finished pot, however, there really is nothing more exciting than finally seeing that beautiful fire-kissed, uncracked, perfect pot come out of the ashes.
Is obtaining clay a technical exercise or a way to reconnect with the Earth?
We do take a “casually” technical approach to our practice, however, we also recognize the significance and value of the work we do as an exercise in the reverence of place. We have assigned a numbering system to the various locations, occasionally adding secondary tiers when more than one sample is taken from slightly different points on a riverbank. We label each pot we make with the number of the location from which its body clay came. We also have a series of “test pots” and small, unfired discs which allow us to show the appearance of each clay before and after firing.
With all the quiet work and time it takes to make our pots, it would be difficult not to contemplate the hundreds of generations of people who have worked and lived and created their ceramics from this very land. We feel a deep connection to the past through pottery, both as it was done by our European ancestors and the Indigenous women potters who understood the land and earth and clay in ways that modern potters rarely come close to touching.
Parent and Mitchell plan to participate in the Burlington Potters’ Guild’s May 2025 show. For those travelling from Burlington to Toronto, they can find Parent and Mitchell’s pots made with Burlington clay at the Ram and Rebirth store. Parent and Mitchell document their astounding creations and their clay-extracting process on their Instagram account: @river_pots!
