Lucia McHardy’s Graceful Pottery is Inspired by the Kawarthan Landscape
Date: 11/05/2013
The quality, fine-arts tour gives visitors the chance to witness autumn leaves at their peak and to explore the Kawarthan countryside. The tour also enables people like me to meet artists in their homes and studios and learn about their work. I met Lucia McHardy on a gentle Saturday afternoon.
Lucia lives on an exquisite property, 20 acres of untamed land near Bobcaygeon. She is inspired by nature, the rugged Kawarthan landscape, her art collection, and pottery books. Her intent is to produce work with grace and vitality.
Lucia produces elegant hand-built stoneware, smoke-fired pottery, and Raku, a kind of Japanese pottery traditionally used in the Japanese tea ceremony, most often in the form of tea bowls. All of Lucia’s work is hand-built. And she doesn’t use a potter's wheel or slip cast.
Lucia is a graduate of Sheridan College School of Design, and an active member of the Kawartha Potters Guild.
This photo features a set of four treat dishes from Lucia’s Lily Pad Line, which also includes dinner plates, side plates, and dessert bowls. These graceful dishes, which boast a food-safe glaze, are a pleasure to use.
The plates are embossed with real lily pads. Lucia canoes the Kawartha Lakes to gather the lily pads and cuts them carefully so as not to disturb the roots. Lucia then places the lily pads in a pail of water. They only keep for a couple of days. With luck, Lucia can get three plate impressions from one lily pad.
The glaze is Lucia’s own transparent gray-blue. She has tried to capture the colour of the shallows in the lakes of the Kawarthas. The clay body is white stoneware.
If you wish, Lucia can write a message on the bottom: “peace and contentment,” “happiness and good will,” or “I love you mom.” In fact, Lucia can write whatever you’d like as long as the message doesn’t exceed four words.
Lucia’s pottery is available for purchase at www.etsy.com (an e-commerce website focused on handmade or vintage items, as well as art and craft supplies). Lucia has excellent reviews from people who purchased her stoneware urns, bowls, plates, platters, mugs, and jewelry on Etsy. And she also has 260 admirers on the e-commerce site! You can also visit Lucia’s home studio year-round, by appointment. Kawartha Wilds Art Pottery is just off highway 36 - west of Buckhorn - at 1367 Oakridge Road in Bobcaygeon. Phone: (705) 657-7484.
