The Artists’ Collective in Elk will feature a show of salt-fired pottery by Alison Gardner, of Albion, for the month of May. Alison has lived in the area since 1969, and has been locally trained at the former Fort Bragg campus of College of the Redwoods and the Mendocino Art Center. She has been working in clay since 1983. Alison is known for her own line of glazes containing local wood ash,silts, clay’s and other minerals. The show will be of functional ware,with local liner glazes, and salt glaze, sometimes over slip patterns, on the exteriors. Salt glazing is attained by putting the pots into the kiln with no exterior glaze, just a liner glaze on the insides of the pot. When the kiln approaches temperature (about 2300 degrees F.), salt is thrown into the kiln. The salt vaporizes, and the sodium in the salt fuses with the silica and alumina in the clay to form a glaze. Salt glazing is an old technique, which was developed in Germany around 1400.
There will be a reception to meet the artist, with food and drink, on 2nd Sat., May 13th, 3 to 5 pm. The Artists’ Collective is located at 6031 S. Hwy 1, and is open daily from 10 am to 5 pm. The phone number is 877-1128, for more information.