Sgraffito pottery does more than just scratch the surface: it captures memories

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Potter Karen Gray began to focus on her now-favoured technique almost by accident. Facing three months of limited mobility thanks to a cast on her leg, she began carving images into clay at her wheel as a way to keep busy. She didn’t know then that it would lead to a singular focus on the technique – called sgraffito, Italian for ‘scratched away’ – and a thriving custom-order business etching her customers’ cottages, memories and beloved items in clay.

“It was so much fun that it just grew from there and I’ve now pretty much morphed into just doing sgraffito,” says Gray. “From that came the ability to do custom orders which stemmed from someone saying, ‘will you draw a picture of my cottage?’”

To create her unique works, Gray first makes the piece – a mug or platter or bowl – and then lets it try so that the outer surface has begun to harden. She then applies a layer of glaze – often black but sometimes spots of colour – and when that’s dry she begins to scratch the surface away to reveal the image. For custom orders, she works from a photo. Sometimes, she’ll add layers of colour back to the areas scratched away.

It’s a long process, both the scratching itself and the drying time. More elaborate pieces take more time. “I need four weeks for the clay to dry at a reasonable rate, otherwise it can be prone to cracking. Until it’s fired it’s called bisque ware and it’s in a very fragile state. When it’s fired, it ends up looking a bit like lino or woodblock print.”

Gray has had some unusual and interesting requests. Many cottages on platters, but also a mug with a mountain bike and raven images, a set of bowls for a child, a dog bowl, and even a fire engine-red lid for a toilet tank.

She says that at first she was nervous about creating custom pieces. “But people are so wonderful at realizing that things can go wrong – there can be problems in the kiln or there can be problems drying – and really it’s fine. If it doesn’t work, I can always build another one. And in the end, if it doesn’t work, no one has ever said no.”

The Potter’s Studio and Gallery opened on July 1. It’s Gray’s second gallery – the first was in Maynooth, near Bancroft, but she returned to this side of Algonquin Park to be closer to family. She renovated a house on Brunel Road to act as a gallery, studio and home in one.

A creative career wasn’t one Gray had planned on – her sister Jane, a painter, was the artist in the family. “People would come over and they’d say ‘are you the artist?’, and I spent my entire life saying no that’s my sister.” But then in about 2000, she took a Sunday-afternoon pottery class in Kearney and then, on impulse, took a three-month hiatus from her job to do a pottery class at the Haliburton School of the Arts in 2001. She didn’t do too much with her new-found skill for a few years, but then in 2009 bought and renovated an old house in Maynooth as a gallery. She’s been making pottery full-time ever since.

“I feel lucky. I’ve had a charmed life,” says Gray. “It takes a lot of time to carve a piece, but it’s the best way of slowing down time. It’s just so enjoyable. And having that relationship with a customer is wonderful. I’ve come to realize that so often those ideas they give me totally open up a new world.”

Visit the Potter’s Studio and Gallery at 16 Brunel Road throughout December from 10-5 on weekends or 11-4 most weekdays, or find it online at thepottersstudio.com or on Facebook here. The gallery will be closed January through March while Gray builds inventory for next year, but she welcomes a knock on the door for those who are curious.