For the month of May, Maine Potters Market is featuring new work by Laurel MacDuffie. Feeling the need for some quiet this winter, Laurel has created a body of meaty, simple forms whose only adornment is the subtle color variations created by salt and flame. Without the covering of glaze, marks left on the pot as it was made provide a different kind of surface. The finished pot becomes less about decoration, more about process, more about story. These pots are about the facts, unconcealed. No politics, no backpedaling, no campaign horse hockey, no hairspray.  

 

Laurel is also featuring her “cool cups”. Of these unique pots Laurel says, “when the predictability of production starts to take its toll, I like to play with the form of the cup.  I enjoy challenging the known world of functional pottery.  I want these cups to be successfully functional, but also odd, surprising, and even silly.  I make them in limited edition, as time allows, and I make them to please myself.   And because they are not practiced, they embody elements of imperfection and question, qualities I very much appreciate in a handmade object.”

 

ABOUT LAUREL MACDUFFIE – Probably the best thing her parents ever did was refuse to own a television. While she sadly missed seeing one giant leap for mankind, she learned from the start how to use her imagination and make beautiful things.  In 2012 she was able to finally put those skills to the test and rely solely on her two hands to support herself.  She joined her husband, David Orser, as a full time potter in their small studio, Cedar Mountain Potters, where they shuffle carefully in small paths around stacks of clay, filling their shelves to the gills. In her pots she likes to incorporate seemingly opposing qualities, such as sturdy and tender, sensuous and hard, expected and surprising. Laurel's pots are high fired in a salt kiln.  Salt firing is a labor-intensive process that gives unique and beautiful results. You may see small dots on the pots that are left by the tiny balls of wadding that must be used to prevent pots from sticking.  All pots are dishwasher and microwave safe.  Some forms may be used in the oven if special care instructions are followed.

 

ABOUT MAINE POTTERS MARKET – Founded in 1978 by a group of potters who envisioned a cooperative market where they could educate customers and sell their wares to the public, Maine Potters Market currently consists of fourteen potters from twelve Maine studios. The rich variety of handmade work available for sale keeps Maine Potters Market customers returning. May hours: Sunday -  Thursday: 10 - 6; Friday & Saturday: 10 - 9.