News and event information for Williams Lake, BC - as it happens.

By Sage Birchwater

Williams Lake potter Anna Roberts has been making pots out of local Cariboo clay for 46 years. Over that time she has developed her own unique style of both glazed and burnished pots, and her work is much sought after.

Anna, a confirmed naturalist, likes to display the natural colours of the clays she has dug locally, so she only glazes the interiors of her pots. The outsides she leaves unglazed and textures them with designs from Mother Nature using the patterns of weathered wood.

(Anna Roberts' pottery show and sale is this Friday and Saturday.)

Anna no longer uses a wheel to throw her pots. Instead she hand-builds them. “Then I toss them and let the clay go where it wants.”

For the past half dozen years Anna has held a show and sale in her yard at 2202 Grebe Drive.

“That way I can empty out my studio and put all the pots I’ve accumulated outside so people can enjoy them.”

Anna’s burnished ware is not waterproof. She creates these pieces without a glaze, rubbing the half-dried clay with an agate to get her creations smooth before she low-fires them in the kiln. Then they are finished with smoke texturing. “I let the flames flow around them. Even low-firing changes the clay into pottery.”

For Anna Roberts pottery-making is a recreational pastime she does for fun. “It doesn’t matter to me how long it takes to make a pot.”

The show and sale runs all day for two days, Friday Sept. 23 and Saturday Sept.24. The advice from those who have attended this event in the past is to go early before all the choice pieces are gone. “People can come any time during the daylight hours,” Anna says casually. “From 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. people can come and just look, or if they like something then they can buy it.”

To find Anna Roberts show and sale, go to the far end of South Lakeside and turn left on Grebe Drive, then take the first left past the railway tracks.

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