Incorporating my love of drawing and developing new glaze effects keeps me excited about ceramics. My work is predominantly hand built tableware for everyday use. ​

Aspiring potter
I was raised in Yellowknife, NWT and when I was around 25, I married and began a family. At that time, along with two friends, I decided to take a pottery
class. It was 40 degrees below zero, so there wasn’t much else to do? We took the class and I immediately fell in love with working with clay. I decided that when I retired, I would get back into pottery.
When I retired and settled on Vancouver Island I read an ad from Arrowsmith Potter’s Guild that offered classes. I was in. They welcomed me immediately and not just for the classes, but to become a member of the Guild and enjoy all the benefits. I am now a lifetime member at Arrowsmith and have my pottery for sale in the Train Station Pottery Shop.
To me, pottery to me is more than a hobby – it is a release from whatever ails or motivates me at the time. It also keeps me in touch with a wonderful group of potters on Vancouver Island.

I took my very first pottery lesson here at Arrowsmith Potters Guild in 1998.  As crazy as I was about throwing on the wheel, handbuilding was calling my name.  The last 20 plus years have found me playing with clay on hand built projects only.  These include funky functional tableware, as well as decorative raku pieces.  I have come to love woodfiring in the Tozan kiln, as well as raku and electric firing.  ​

​s a child I was always making little bowls out of mud and letting them dry in the sun. Who knew that my love of mud would lead me to where I am today.
I didn’t get serious with clay until my first official pottery class was in 1989 with Ruth Porter at Beban Park in Nanaimo.  I loved it!  I practiced for a few years at the Beban Park Pottery Studio until life moved me away and my time was no longer my own.  In Fort McMurray in 2002, I briefly reconnected with clay for two years, but it was until my two girls were older that I was able to afford more time to play in clay. 
In 2016, I signed up for a beginners pottery class at the Arrowsmith Potters Guild with Barb Strachan followed by an intermediate class with John Shauer.  I was hooked. Since then I have spent countless hours playing with clay.  In 2017 my girlfriend and I signed up to go to Metchosin International Summer School of the Arts where we took a Mask Making Workshop with Bob Kingsmill.  I had so much fun there that I returned the following year for three workshops with Allan Burgess, Victoria Christen and Marney McDiarmid.  In Marney’s class I learned to make hand built bowls with pieces and today still enjoy making that style of bowl on a regular basis.  2019 I took three more workshops at MISSA with Clive Tucker, Linda Doherty and Richard Burkett.  After Richard’s class, I started experimenting and making my own glazes.  I love taking classes, learning, and then using my newly acquired knowledge when playing with clay.  I also took classes with Katy Fogg in Comox every winter from 2017 to 2019.
At present, I am taking a class with Cathi Jefferson where we are revisiting ribs.  In my previous classes with Cathi, we worked on teapots, use of ribs, lids, pitchers, altered forms and plates.  During COVID, Cathi’s classes have helped to keep me inspired and would have been lost without them!
When not in classes, I live in Errington on a 10 acre hobby farm with my husband Terry, two dogs, two cats, two horses, a pony, chickens, and two loose peacocks.  While my little studio was being built the peacocks would hang out and still do – and that is how the name Loose Peacock Pottery came to be.