CAPE BRETON CLAY: Welcome

BELL FRASER

Transforming a simple thrown form into an elaborate container, with fish, crabs, lobsters or mussels added to it, is both a challenge and a reward. I want to make new things that feel good to hold. I have been working with clay since 1986. After studying painting and ceramics in Halifax at the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design, where I graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1990, I came back to Cape Breton to continue working. I now live and have a production studio in Chimney Corner, near Margaree Harbour, and shops in Margaree Valley and Chimney Corner.

Making Cape Breton Clay

Each of these works comes out of a chain of time-consuming processes. On most of our bowls and platters, you'll find fish or shellfish, molded from clay, which reflect the bounty of the waters surrounding Cape Breton Island. Unlike the work involved in making most pottery, these critters add time and complexity to the fabrication of each piece. Joining the clay creatures to the bowls or platters is a tricky process which must be closely attended to. Once fired, these sculptural additions are solid and can be used as "handles". The intense detail-work involved in painting and glazing the shellfish takes a long time. Aside from the rich detail evident on the creatures, the navy blue surfaces are applied in 3 successive coats by brush, rather than by dipping. The result of these laborious processes are works that are complex, elegant and solid.

What people are saying...

Frommer's Guidebooks "When prowling around, watch for Cape Breton Clay, in the Margaree Valley, northeast of the Salmon museum. One of the occupational hazards of being a guidebook writer is the requirement that I look at a lot of pottery, much of it bad and almost all of it claiming to be "unique." This work, by Margaree Valley native Bell Fraser, actually is unique. And quite wonderful. Crab, lobster, fish, and ears of corn are worked into her platters and bowls in ways that are both whimsical and elegant. It's worth a stop." -Wayne Curtis, p. 102, 3rd Edition, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and P.E.I.
Canadian House and Home magazine: "While undoubtedlly modern in its simplicity, her work calls to mind such precedents as Victorian majolica shell plates, or the renowned platters of Renaissance potter Bernard Palissy, with their life-size crayfish, snakes and trout... While there is some whimsy here, there is nothing cute: souvenir clichés are elevated to artistic subjects" Kateri Lanthier p. 156, April '99.
Maclean's magazine "It can be a disconcerting thing to stand in Nova Scotia's Margaree River Valley on a clear August night. For if it's possible anywhere to inhale the distilled essence of a single place, it is here, where even a jaded city dweller can experience Cape Breton Island's peculiar soul and overwhelming grace." John DeMont .