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Cathy Terepocki | Episode 1048
Over the past fifteen years of Cathy Terepocki’s ceramics career she’s had a diverse practice exhibiting, teaching, designing, and producing multiple collections of work. The backdrop of Cathy’s studio is a large expanse of forest, with a river close by and the Cascade Mountains in view on a clear day. The influence of living close to nature is also something that has worked its way into Cathy’s design practice. Cathy is most keenly aware of it in her choice of surface decoration – patterns abstracted from nature, vertical lines that mimic bare trees or grids that reference orchard rows. Glaze surfaces are inspired by mossy fence posts or the speckled smooth matte finish of a river stone.
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Are there challenges with wild clay that you didn’t expect to find that you ended up having to work around?
Yes, so many. For example there is gold that sticks to the clay and the walls of my pots are blowing out constantly because of flecks of gold. Which is kind of hilarious because a prospector came to my studio a few months ago and he thought it was hilarious that I was sifting out all the good stuff months ago and keeping the garbage. (laughter) Like who would have thought!
Do you feel like the whole process of making is a richer experience for you?
Oh my word, so much. And it has also changed in that sometimes I feel like a farmer/artist, like I feel like my work is more…there are certain things that I do in certain seasons. I just structure my whole practice differently. I go out in the spring and the fall and collect the clay. I do, obviously, the processing outside. My studio is very small and I have a ram press so I do a lot of the production outside and let things dry in the sun. Yeah, it is totally different.
Why is community important to you in the aspect of harvesting clay?
I have never been asked that question before but actually, I think this is what it goes back to, I was raised in a Swiss Mennonite community in south western Ontario and so I grew up around quilting bees and barn raisings and that whole thing and harvest parties in the fall. I don’t know if that’s why or it is purely coincidence but it might have something to do with it.
Why do you have to dry the clay before you go onto the next step?
It just slakes down better. Is that what you mean, before I mix it?
Yeah, what does slaking down mean?
My clay is not terrible, I can kind of mix it when the clay is still damp but it works better if I dry it out completely then add water and it just mixes in with the water better. It’s easier to mix if it’s perfectly dry and then I add the water. So I try to do that.
Once it’s dry do you have to break it up into a kind of powder?
No, I don’t do it. I try to avoid any steps that are really dusty.
Do you make this a big part of your story when you are sharing your work with people?
I think it has become a lot about the story and I like to tell stories so it’s fun to share the story of where the clay comes from. But I want it to speak for itself and also be well crafted work.
Book
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
Contact
Instagram: @cterepocki