Atmospheric Firing: Pottery by Betsy Levine of Prescott Hill Pottery at Maine Potters Market


  • June 28, 2016

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For the month of July, Maine Potters Market is featuring the work of Betsy Levine. Betsy's pots are organic and earthy, with a sensuality that comes mostly from the materials she choses and the atmospheric firing techniques that she uses. Her forms are simple, yet graceful, revealing the complex surfaces resulting from the interaction of clay and fire.  
 
Two different firing methods create a complementary body of work. The wood fired pots are fired for 8 days, allowing fly ash, coals, and the strokes of the flame itself to caress the pots and create unique surfaces in a beautiful range of natural color, from blacks, browns and purples to oranges, golds and pale pearly greasy. The soda fired pots show off the natural colors of the clay itself played against restrained use of glaze which reacts with the soda atmosphere to produce subtle changes in light reflectivity and color variation. 
 
Betsy's pots are made to be used, admired and loved. They may look like works of art but they can go from table to dishwasher and be used and enjoyed every day.
 
 
ABOUT BETSY LEVINE –  Betsy moved to ME in 2005, built her kiln and established Prescott Hill Pottery in Liberty. She makes useful pots (tableware, storage jars and vases) as well as evocative vessels in high-fire stoneware and porcelain, firing most of the pots in her gas-fired soda kiln, and twice a year with a group of potters in a week-long wood firing. Betsy's work reflects her long-time interest in artifacts, in ancient historical records, symbols on bowls, marks on tablets, and the very earliest impulses to put our 'prints on the sands of time.' She reflects that "to decorate the implements of necessity is thereby to create magic in their use."
 
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 Maine potters working in Maine twelve studios. The rich variety of handmade work available for sale keeps Maine Potters Market customers returning. July hours: 10 – 9 daily.
 

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Maine Potters Market

376 Fore Sreet
Portland  ME  04101 

207-774-1633
moc.tekramsrettopeniam@ofni
www.mainepottersmarket.com