We are very excited to have Lisa Marcus from Mermaid Springs Pottery in Kitchener join us this year for the Heart & Hand Festival! Lisa has been working as a potter for more than 23 years, and like the Schneider family, Lisa moved to this area from Pennsylvania! Most of Lisa's work is thrown on the potter's wheel but she also does hand building to create the characters and figures that adorn her pieces. These decorative elements are inspired by her interest in ancient cultures, Goddess worship and her passion for cats. All her designs are original and produced by Lisa herself. These beautifully decorated and whimsically fun pieces are meant to bring a little bit of excitement and joy to your every day or special occasion. Interested in learning how to make some unique pieces of your own? You are in luck! Lisa teaches wheel classes form her Kitchener studio twice a week!
Stop by the Heart & Hand festival on Sept. 27 to visit Lisa and all our wonderful artisans!
Ceramic artist Rosemary Aicher invites us into her pottery studio. Watch as Rosemary throws a bowl on the wheel. Learn a little about her technique and her unique style.
Rosemary will be at the Joseph Schneider Haus Saturday, September 21 for the Heart & Hand Festival. She will be demonstrating throwing on the wheel and giving you a chance to try your hand!
Tomorrow is the big day! Keep your fingers crossed for sunshine - but we've got the tents set up and lots of cover so it is bound to be a great day rain or shine!Over 27 artisans will be on site demonstrating their traditional arts, including a blacksmith, coppersmith, woodcarvers, tool maker, tinsmith, paper marbling and more!
Meet potter and pottery instructor Sally Pfeiffer. We ask Sally what it is about pottery that excites and inspires her.
1.Why Pottery? What is it about this art form that excites you most?
What excites me about pottery is that I can make something that is beautiful, creative as well as functional at the same time. For example, I have tulip goblettes. Can you imagine drinking a glass of white wine out of a tulip? Or imagine a bud vase that looks like leaves are growing out of it!
2. How did you get your start? Do you remember the first piece you made?
I got my start through the Waterloo Potters' Workshop Guild. I went to one of their sales at the Waterloo Recreation Centre, picked up a business card and took my first class. My first piece was a vase that went wonky and was super bottom heavy! It's now in the home of a friend who loved the blue glaze decoration!
3.What is the most difficult aspect of creating with clay
The most difficult aspect of working with clay is working on the wheel and getting it centred in the middle. Once you learn this foundational skill, the rest is smooth sailing!
4.Can anyone learn to create with clay?
You don't have to be super artistic to learn to create with clay! Clay is wonderfully impressionable, there are so many ways to create interesting texture using found objects, fabrics and stamps. This coating of glaze that gets applied then plays with this texture in the firing process - chemical reactions by the high heat of the kiln produce fascinating, colourful results! I lead my students with step-by-step guided projects until they have the building blocks to create their own projects. No one leaves my classes without a ceramic piece to be proud of!
5. What’s next for you?Any large projects you are looking forward to tackling?
I'm looking forward to going bigger in the next year. Creating pieces focusing even more on sculpture "meeting" function in my work.
To learn more about ongoing pottery classes taught by Sally please go to www.sculption.ca/class.htm
Watch as Sally works on the potting wheel. This short clip was taken at last years Heart & Hand Festival!
Potters have been shaping clay into decorative objects and vessels for thousands of years. The earliest decorative figures, found in what is now the Czech Republic, date from c. 25, 000 BCE!
Santa
Potter, Jan Bentley, invites us into thePolar Pottery Studio and demonstrates how she creates her beautiful bird figures and decorative Santas out of clay.
We are very excited to have Lisa Marcus from Mermaid Springs Pottery in Kitchener join us this year for the Heart & Hand Festival! Lisa has been working as a potter for more than 23 years, and like the Schneider family, Lisa moved to this area from Pennsylvania! 
