About

NATURE IS MY FIRST LOVE, MY DEEPEST LOVE, & MY MUSE

When I first settled in Manitoba’s Interlake region (north of Winnipeg) in the late 1990s, I happened upon a potter selling his wares at a local craft sale. The chance meeting was meant to be. I soon began taking pottery lessons with him at his nearby country studio. After the first day, he sent me home with a lump of clay. The next week, when I brought in what I had created with it, he said, “You could really do this.” The moment I touched clay, I knew it was my medium. I quickly developed my skills and began selling my work at craft fairs and markets within the next couple years afterward. I have since taken my ceramics across the country, to art shows and sales, and have displayed at galleries, mainly in Manitoba, Canada. Artistically, I am a firm believer in allowing creative energies to flow through an artist and guide the work. For me, this is also a spiritual experience. Feeling that spirituality, and the spiritual world, are interwoven with nature and earth, my work naturally gravitates to a rustic style. 

I use a lot of naturalistic themes in my pottery–leaves, trees, unfinished, pit-fired clay. I enjoy the meditative process of hand building pottery. I can let my mind go, and watch while the form is revealed.

Ancient Energies Resonate

Sometimes a person is drawn to ancient things. It is somewhat of a mystery why this is so. I am one of those people and, if you are too, you will no doubt understand what I mean. Ancient things have a certain, intense vibration that some people feel deeply. When I come upon an image of some artifact in a museum, or an old illustration in a book, I feel some inexplicable bond. I want to tap into it, and I think that’s why I am drawn to recreate it, in my own humble way. I am most identified by the rustic, earthy pottery and clay art I do. However, one year, when unemployed, I devoted three months to creating a series of reproduction tiles of ancient gods and goddesses. I find the themes blend very well with my nature-themed work, as both are primitive in nature and celebrate an older spirituality.

I am always open to taking on new reproduction projects. So, if you have an idea that can inspire me, please let me know.

Clay is my canvas!

Soon after I started making pottery, my thoughts turned to jewelry. Since much of my pottery is nature-inspired, I was naturally inclined to make botanical themed pendants and pins, which I colored with oxide washes on porcelain. Some time later it occurred to me that clay was the perfect medium for acrylic paints due to its porosity. This opened up a whole new world for me–one of dazzling colors and broader creative possibilities. I began to expand my subject matter, adding animals, birds, goddesses and symbols, as well as experimenting with texture and unique shapes–and making truly unique wearable art! I sell my pendants, pins, rings, earrings, bracelets and buttons under the product line, “Casual Goddess”.

My customers always come back to me saying they received many compliments on a pendant they were wearing, or a button they had chosen for one of their projects.

*Casual Goddess is a product line, by Teresa Carey.  The line includes a large selection of pendants, pins, bracelets and buttons. Please inquire about selection.

 

I Love Texture

The beauty of clay is that it is, both, yielding and hard, depending on what part of the creative process you are engaged in. This is what makes the art of ceramics so interesting. Working in clay is like creating fossil records. In my case, the records are of the textures I choose to decorate with, whether from natural materials like leaves and grass or hand made objects. In particular, I have a soft spot for textiles. I love the added dimension of having layered two ideas in my work–the first of the potter sculpting a lump of clay into a form; the second which suggests the handiwork of someone crocheting or tatting an interesting piece of lace, or working at their loom. The two ideas are merged when textile meets the soft, yielding wet clay. The qualities of both become strengthened when the piece is glazed and fired. Colors pool into crevices under the hardened glossiness of the glaze. It is beautiful, but it is also a pretty much permanent record of the meeting of various materials in time. Two ideas become married.