About the Author



I mentioned that I started working with clay at age 17 by joining a pottery class. It developed from there, and after I was married, I purchased my first kiln. It was a manual Econo Kiln, and it was installed by a reputable electrician in a corner of my basement laundry room. The kiln did not have an automatic shut-off, so it was necessary to place firing cones on a kiln shelf and peep into the holes to see when the cones melted. Then I would shut the kiln down. After several firings, I learned the approximate shut down times. I also purchased a manual stand up kick wheel from Minnesota, and if you want a workout, this is the wheel to buy.
When I completed my education and acquired an Ontario Teaching Certificate, I was hired by the then called Lincoln County Board of Education (now the District School Board of Niagara) to teach a Kindergarten class at Port Weller School and then Prince Philip School. With these new responsibilities, I became a weekend pottery enthusiast, not having the time during the week, but I always enjoyed my time with clay.
Life marches on, and with two small children, two girls, my life became hectic. They would love to watch me create with clay, and they both enjoyed creating themselves, producing some very interesting works of art.
Throughout my teaching career, I worked with various school boards, in several provinces, but returned to the Niagara Region in 1984, boy am I dating myself!
I was hired by the Niagara Catholic District School Board to teach their adult education evening pottery classes. Eureka! I was thrilled, and what could be better?
The classes were grade 11 and 12 credit courses and were always full. My classes were filled with high school students looking for additional credits and people from the community who just loved pottery. I was in charge of all the ordering, all of the lessons, and all of the firing.
I loved teaching the pottery classes, but what is that saying? All good things must come to an end, and end it did.
The maintenance staff had suffered cut-backs and therefore my caretakers were only allowed to clean the art room after the daytime art lessons, and not clean after my pottery classes in the evenings. There had been a complaint to the school board about an allergy possibility in my particular art room at the high school. The Health and Safety Committee were summoned and tested the room, finding traces of silica dust. So, to make a long story short, my pottery classes were cancelled. I was invited to teach the visual art courses that were being offered in the adult education department at St. Thomas, and I accepted. Well, no more pottery, however, I did manage to include sculpture segments in the visual art courses using air dry and polymer clays. I had to make the best of it.
I continued teaching at St, Thomas for 13 years and continued teaching the visual arts courses for the entire time until I retired in 2010. No matter what other courses I was teaching, I always managed to incorporate some part of pottery into the lessons. I realized early on that students learn best by doing, by creating something that reinforces their learning. For example, in my grade 11 biology classes, I always included a follow-up segment for human anatomy, called "Build a Body". The students would create the bones of the skeletal system using air-dry clay, and place them correctly on a pre-made outline of a body that was drawn on a plastic tablecloth and spread out on a large table. After the skeleton was complete, the group of students that created the bones did a presentation to the rest of the class, explaining the types of bones and their names. This was a very effective way to learn the parts of the skeletal system, and they had fun doing it.
Well, here I am, retired now, and at 63, I still think about clay and what I can build. I decided to start this blog to pass on information I have gained about pottery, and include some of my early lessons about working with clay. I hope you enjoy it.
Nancy Young