COLUMBIA

Laos / Continued from Page 4

the pots. Another tunnel comes to
the surface as a flue. Once the cavern
is loaded with pots, villagers stack
hardwood by the doors to the cavern
and set it on fire.

Once the pots are pulled out of
the still-hot kiln, that’s it. There is
no glazing process, though some may
be stained. The resultant pots are not
food safe but the Lao find many uses
for them.

We did take a look at other methods
of making pots. One day, after
spending the morning in Ban Chan,
we boated back across the Mekong,
walked across the peninsula of Luang
Prabang, took a swaying bamboo
bridge across the lovely Nam Khan
River and visited two women potters.

‘The first was a 71-year-old potter
who works and fires alone. She had
a vast pile of greenware, thrown in
her basement. She fired in an empty
lot near her home. She piles up the
pots on the ground, covers them with
palm fronds, coconut shells, and even

sometimes tires, then sets the whole
thing ablaze. She sprays the heap,
spewing water from her mouth, and
feeds the flames until she deems the
pots are ready. It’s a long way from
the exactitude of computer firing.

I made two visits to the other
woman. She mines her clay from a
secret location somewhere behind the
fence at the airport. It seems about
the same texture as the Ban Chan
clay, but her methods are different.

The clay is formed into a hollow
oval then placed on a low wooden
banding wheel, again turned with a
toe. She ribs the clay into a round
vessel about 10 inches high, then sets
it aside. The next day she paddles the
bottom of the pot closed. A potter
from New York, an avid pinch-potter,
was fascinated with her method.

A couple of serious potters from
England went home with what sound-
ed like great ideas for their work. The
few non-potters enjoyed Ban Chan as
well, playing a ball game with the
villagers, joining a visit to the school
that serves all the surrounding villages.

‘The company of the other travelers
was an important part of this trip. We
spend most evenings together, eating
and discussing the day and refining
what we wanted to do next.

In Laos, the higher people live
from the river, the poorer they are.
Several people in our group back-
packed high into the mountains to
bring school supplies and toys to
impoverished villagers.

For me, the best part of the trip
was being in Ban Chan, a community
where works _ together.
Toddlers are everywhere as their
parents make pots. Chickens and
dogs wander about. I was delighted
to sit a few inches from the dusty
ground, using clay to bring me closer
to a very different life from mine in
Vancouver.

Andrea Maitland is president of
the Aberthau Potters Club in Vancouver,
and kindly proofreads our newsletter
each month. Her journey through Laos
and Cambodia last spring was led by
ceramic artist Denys James of Salt
Spring Island, B.C.

everyone

Discovery Art Travel

©
~

<.«.. FEATURING Denys James

UPCOMING CERAMICS EXCURSIONS

Sep 13-Oct 4, 2007 TURKEY

Jan 14-Feb 2, 2008 MYANMAR (Burma)
4 Sep/Oct 2008 TURKEY
| Jan 2009 LAOS & ANGKOR WAT

~ 2008/2009 MOROCCO, OAXACA, MEXICO

Phone: 250-537-4906 Email: denys@denysjames.com
www.denysjames.com

Potters Guild of BC Newsletter - March 2008