Russell James Ceramics

In between markets I'm spending most of my time in the studio, stocking back up on pots. I'm nothing if not observant: so many folks ask for giant mugs and inevitably the biggest mug in the booth always sells. So I'm knocking out some massive mugs for all you beverage junkies!

I meant to film myself throwing this batch and I completely forgot. 🙃 Just imagine it wetter and spinning.

Think you or a loved one would like to make a giant mug? Check my website for one-on-one pottery experiences in my home studio. Give someone the gift that they get to make themselves! ✨🏺🫲🏽

❄️❄️ EDIT: Unfortunately this market has to cancel Sunday due to snow in Surrey! Sorry folks.

I'm all set up for a two-day Christmas market this weekend in Surrey! Stop on by to see many local makers and vendors including yours truly. Free admission + door prizes!

Dec 9 & 10.
10am - 3pm each day.

W E Kinvig Elementary
13266 70b Ave

Tonight I'm doing the prize draw for the mug giveaway! One of my fantastic customers ordered this set of four bowls plus a cup, which will give her an additional five entries in the draw.

Check out my webstore for a bunch of newly updated items, plus my stories highlights for discounted items. Every pot purchased counts as an extra entry in the giveaway. Today's your last chance to get in on the draw.

Click through my ig stories today to find deals on discontinued items!

I've got too much finished work in my studio and I need space to make new things. You'll be doing a good deed by helping me.

Generally these items are designs or colours that I'm moving away from. If there are flaws ("seconds") I'll indicate it in the story and price accordingly.

Don't forget that every item purchased counts as an entry in the mug giveaway. ✌🏼❤️

I am giving away this handmade, one-of-a-kind stoneware mug! Prize draw to take place Saturday Sept 2nd. Here are three ways to enter:

1) Tag a friend in the comments who loves handmade pottery! One entry per person.

2) Shop in my instagram stories sale starting Wednesday Aug 23. One entry per item purchased!

3) Order from my updated webstore! Link in bio. One entry per item purchased!

That's all! The winner will be announced Sept 2nd. Come pick up in-studio and receive a congratulatory high-five and free studio tour, OR request to have your mug shipped FREE. Good luck! ✌🏼

That's a wrap! Huge thanks to everyone who stopped by this weekend. It was great meeting or reconnecting with everyone. Hope y'all love your new pots. 😘🏺

Just a few more pieces that journeyed 1700km strapped to the roof of the minivan on our recent trip home. Come see them and their siblings at my studio tomorrow. ✌🏼

Tall pot! 🏺

This one had a pyrometric cone melt and fuse itself to the side, making a permanent addition. I've since ground down the sharp edge but the pot will forever keep the birthmark it gained in the kiln.

My sale announcement post was a little cheeky; not everything I've been making looks like it was dredged up from the bottom of the sea. I've got plenty of very functional, very pretty mugs and much much more.

Back yard pottery sale

Date: Sat July 15 / Sun July 16
Time: 11:00am - 4:00pm
Address: 1117 E 12 Ave Vancouver
(enter through back gate from alley)

These hands have not been idle! You're invited to the backyard studio to see what's new and catch up after a year away. I'm freshly home, recently engaged, and it's my birthday soon! Come get a hug or a high-five. 🤠

It's been a big push taking flight from the prairies. I continued working at the studio until the day before our departure.

We're safely home in Vancouver, and I have a lot of cool pieces and stories to share. ✌🏼

We propose to marry. Each other. 💍✨

We're closing the chapter on the prairies and coming home to roost.🐦🐦‍⬛

☀️🌾🏺🔥

Only taking time to post because I'm waiting for clay to dry. 🙃

I've been a very busy potter for the past few weeks, working on filling not one but two wood kilns. One firing is now cooling and the second will be loaded next week. We'll be making our exit from Regina after the second firing is complete.

These six pots are all now on display at the and are in very fine company there! The gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday and admission is free, so please check it out if you have the chance.

Still making lots of mini bowls! They make great test pieces for colour and surface concepts. 🎨

More mugs, finished in two different firings. 🔥

Still making mugs!

The little soda kiln at UR goes full blast. Some of my small pieces got extra gnarly. ⚡☕

Red stoneware vase with porcelain appliqué. My tallest pot, standing 31cm finished.

Next month I'll be exhibiting with this and a few more pieces on display!

Pot pics are improving thanks to the photo room facilities at . Shiny stuff incoming. 🔥✨

Finished pots are coming home. Waiting in a row like at a train station, bound for many different directions.

I got a lot of strange and new pots to show you. Here's a mug I carved at home last November, finally glazed and fired. ☕

I hope you all had an enjoyable and, ideally, relaxing weekend. I took my first break after a long work phase of daily visits to the studio at UR.

The semester has flown by and it's my final day of class tomorrow. Most of what I'll be presenting is still waiting to be unloaded in two separate kilns -- one cone-5 electric and one cone-10 gas reduction (the subject of my pyromaniacal photos).

I registered for another course in May/June focusing on wood firing. It'll keep me in the province a little longer than expected but I couldn't miss the opportunity. I'll be back in BC at the end of June with a lot of new know-how, some interesting finished projects, and possibly a singed eyebrow or two. 🔥

A few more examples of the weird and wonderful hand-carved pots I was making at home last autumn.

A few key elements here have sunk into my brain matter and you'll see echoes of this period in my work going forward. 👌🏼

And here I am producing finished work again! Gosh it's been a minute. I'll never forget the lessons I learned handbuilding in the dining room, and I hope I never again have to squeeze my pottery practice into 4 square feet for as long as I live.

In autumn I connected with Ruth Chambers, head of the ceramics department at the University of Regina. She helped me enroll as a casual student and waived the prereqs to get me into one of her senior courses in the winter semester. Now I'm studying with a fantastic group of ceramic artists with a diverse range of backgrounds, styles & interests -- and best of all, there's studio space. Oodles of it.

Regina is feeling more and more like home, and I feel more like myself now that I'm back to turning mud into shiny objects. Time to put my nose to the pottery wheel and make the most of it while I'm here!

By October I had had no luck finding a community clay studio. I bought a box of clay and a banding wheel -- a really nice banding wheel 🤌🏼😘 -- and a chunk of canvas to cover a table. (The clay supplies here are all sold out of a lady's laneway garage. It is very... Regina.)

I plonked the table in front of the dining room window and solemnly began plucking at hunks of clay. I have never handbuilt a piece before; every thing I've ever made was spun quickly through wet mud on a wheel. This was so... dry. 💀

I watched powdery snow pile up in the backyard and kept chipping away. Soon I had a small pile of these faceted mugs. It was profoundly slow-going, as I tried to practice new techniques and weather new opportunities for failure. Plus -- ask anyone who's tried -- it is a pain in the unholy ass to set up a home clay workspace. Battling reclaim, dust, and dirty tools without nuking your lungs or your household plumbing is neither fun nor gratifying.

The work however was very gratifying. I was producing something, and more importantly I had carved out space to do so. I had been feeling really displaced since moving from the Coast; this tiny ceramics landing pad was what I needed to feel grounded.

At the end of August we packed up the car and drove from Vancouver to our new home in Regina. Katelin had been offered the position of principal bassoon in the RSO, an opportunity we decided to seize.

We arranged to move in to the home of Mark, a neighbour of a friend of a friend, who was leaving Regina to be closer to family in Ontario. We spent the first month getting to know the home, the homeowner, and the neighbourhood. The house was cozy and the backyard was serene, often dappled with sun and humming with domesticated bees. We got to know our neighbours around backyard campfires.

Autumn grew colder, and Katelin's rehearsal and concert schedule became routine. Oliver and I kept the house while Katelin won the bread. The only thing missing for me was space for clay. It would be a long dry spell for me as the cold prairie winter set in.

Before I regale you with the details on how I came to be potting in Regina, SK, I need to tell you about a small artist-led gallery I'm appearing in right now!

Under The Radar is debuting its first gallery event with four local artists: Eli Lauritsen (paint), Shauna Perfect (metal), myself (ceramic), and all spearheaded by Brian Ganong, furniture builder and sculptural wood artist .lake.design .

I realize I have like three people in the province following this account right now, but I'm proud to be in my first gallery show so if you're in the area come check it out! Comfy vibes, drinks, and artist chitchat all guaranteed. Comment below or DM with questions.

UNDER THE RADAR
Cara's Gallery, #505 2206 Dewdney Ave
(Top floor above Bushwakker)

Open:
Fridays 4 - 8 pm
Saturdays 2 - 8 pm
Or by appointment

Hello from the bottom of the rabbit hole! Thank you for leaving a little space in your newsfeed for me to jump into after, uh oh, six months.

I'm still doing the pottery thing. Here's one that I made! It's been a long story when you consider the last thing I told you was "I'm driving across the prairies to live in Regina for the Winter" so I better get good at remembering this stuff quick.

This is my favourite piece from my home studio. The surface is inspired by the atmospheric firing techniques I've practiced this year, as well as by the work of many wonderful potters I've met and studied with. The form is inspired by a pot I saw on display at and I thought "heck yeah I want to do one too."

Because of the nature of the past 2½ years many of the techniques required to bring this pot to life were laboriously earned: trial-and-error alone in my backyard or lessons learned from the internet. From wedging clay to mixing glazes to loading and firing the kiln, I've had a lot of hurdles to clear. I feel I can close the chapter on my "babe in the woods" days as I say hello to the world of ceramicists who have been waiting out there for me. I look forward to being a part of the community for a long time.

I'm proud of this piece because I worked hard for it, and because I think the hard work is paying off. I'm sorry I don't have any pictures of this pot with a plant in it because that would look siiiiiiick. 🤙🏼🤙🏼🤙🏼

I made big planters before I packed up shop. This one's a tiger. 🐅

This vase is the closest I'll ever come to a vibe, and I am here for it.

I'm getting 🫕🧀 vibes.

You can tell I like these splashes of porcelain slip over a dark clay surface: I returned to this idea multiple times in my latest firings. The application is inspired by a small vase I have at home by the legendary Gordon Hutchens. I aspire to make pots like him someday.

Also pictured is our happy prairie dog being consumed by the local landscape.

This vase has been orbiting around my pottery world for a while now. I first threw it back in February while taking a class with Arlynn Nobel. Arlynn's use of clay slips for surface decoration has influenced many of my pieces this year.

The blue colour on this globular piece is finally singing after two soda firings; the first results can be seen in the 'before' picture on this post. A little more heat and a little more juice were necessary to get this pot where I wanted it. 🌏🫐

🍜🍜🍜

I had a big plan to finally share all the work I finished over the summer. Then life got in the way and now I live in a different province!

I still have all these photos and they're not going to post themselves, so while I'm working on setting down roots in Saskatchewan soil we can recap the last of the Vancouver wares. These two juicers were the final pieces to come off my wheel.

Gosh it's hard to remember to post pictures of pots sometimes! Our move date is fast approaching so I guess I'm a little distracted.

This trio of bowls were among the final batch of pots to come out of my studio. The form is one I've been returning to regularly this year: small bowls thrown off the hump -- yes pottery terms sound funny -- with the intention of using them to test glazes and finishes in atmospheric firings.

With little left to test for, I gave these bowls a simple treatment of my reliable green glossy glaze. I think it highlights the swirls nicely. Thinking back to when I was developing these glazes in the studio -- mostly in the summer of 2020 -- I'm having fun reflecting on my earliest pieces.

Enjoy a throwback with the fish dish in the final image: a product of the first firing featuring this glaze. My making (and photographing) skills have improved with practice. ✌🏼