Potter Judy Tait with a plate featuring a unique leaf design
DAVID TAIT

Crafted by nature

Ottawa-born potter Judy Tait remembers making pottery as a young girl, using a manual pottery wheel her father had made. Later, she took pottery courses in the U.K. at the Burslem School of Art in Stoke-on-Trent, an area renowned for pottery.

“I was deeply impressed with the longtime industry of ceramic in that area—Royal Doulton, Wedgwood and Denby,” she says.

Tait eventually settled in Curryville, New Brunswick, where nature plays an integral part of her hand-built pottery. She harvests clay from the nearby banks of the Petitcodiac River and uses local flora and other natural objects as decoration, pressing them into the clay to leave an impression.

“The clay has a rich red colour,” Tait says. “And I like to play with surface design and texture. Most of my work is one of a kind.”—Wendy Kitts

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