It’s the classic artistic conundrum—what to make? What’s your voice, your style, your unique take on the artform? In a world of possibilities, it’s one of the hardest questions for an artist to answer and something they’ll spend a lifetime wrestling with. 

“Everything I make is on earth forever,” explains potter, Heather Shepherd.  “Ceramic is one of the hardest materials to break down. That's why archeologists always find it. So, I can make something, but what should I make? Or, what do I want to say with my work?  People are going to own it for a lifetime, so you want it to be good. That's the biggest challenge for me.” 

Shepherd’s response to that challenge has been, on the one hand, a modern-look featuring a bold black and white palette, and, on the other hand, earthy, warm moss-laden pieces. Both styles are distinctive and her work is easily recognizable on the shelves at the Art Gallery of St. Albert and Tix on the Square, where she sells her pieces.   

With a Diploma in Ceramics from Kootenay Studio Arts at Selkirk College in British Columbia, Shepherd is currently a member of the St. Albert Potter’s Guild and teaches wheel throwing through the Art Gallery of St. Albert. Her pottery journey, however, started in her first year at the University of Alberta, where she was studying the history of art, design and visual culture.  

“I was looking for a hobby that would get me out of the library, off the computer and just doing something more tactile,” she says.  

According to Shepherd, she had always loved being creative and has tried painting, knitting, piano and guitar in the past, but nothing’s stuck quite like pottery. She also has a passion for athletics and feels as though pottery perfectly combines the physicality of sport with the creativity of the arts. 

“It just kept drawing me in, because I was seeing my improvement in such an obvious way,” she says. “Having a physical object [to gauge], ‘oh, this one is better than the last one I made.’ I liked seeing that progress. And then, also, I was pretty interested in music, but I would get stage fright, for example. Pottery is a creative thing where you can kind of do it alone in your own little world and whether you show it to people or not is sort of up you.” 

Now, with just about a decade of experience, Shepherd is turning her attention to more demanding pieces, like teapots, and braving the potential for heartbreak that comes with this particular artform. 

“Some things that are really challenging for me to make are objects that are quite large and objects with lots of connections, such as a teapot, where you have to connect the body to the spout, to the handle and you have to make a lid that fits,” says Shepherd. “And every one of those little connecting points is, basically, another place for it to go wrong.” 

Since each creation has to go into a kiln to be fired twice at extremely high temperatures, even if the piece makes it inside the kiln in one piece, there’s no guarantee that it will come out in one piece. Shepherd points out that quality construction is essential for the survival of the work. There are also functional considerations when your artwork also has practical uses. 

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“With the teapot, [considerations are], is it actually going to pour, is it going to hold a reasonable amount of tea, is it too heavy to pick up?” explains Shepherd. “As an artisan, it's fun to find your way through all of those [considerations] and adapt your style to that. 

“In school we literally would spend hours just discussing the angle of a mug handle or how they can be really personal objects. They touch your lips, you hold them and cuddle them on the couch. Buying a mug, people always want to touch it, pick it up and see if it suits them. I've come to find mugs to be very special objects. Which is totally super nerdy. But it's something I think about a lot. I think about my work and what people will enjoy about it. Like for hours.” 

Shepherd’s passion for the form is clear, both when speaking about her practice and in the work that comes out of her kiln. Her mugs, cups, bowls, vases and more, are all built with the sturdiness of something you can truly use, but with the delicate embellishments of a piece of art. Her earnest contemplation of the craft, resulting in, simply put, a beautiful mug you can rely on every single day. 

“It's one of the most ancient practices of humankind ever,” says Shepherd. “Right up there with hunting and building. It's cool to think that I would be connected to this extremely long history of making things with clay. Right? Which is just stuff that we dig out of the ground.” 

For more information about Heather Shepherd and to buy her work, head to her website or follow her on Instagram @hsceramics. You can find her pieces this holiday season at the Art Gallery of St. Albert's gallery shop and at Tix on the Square.

Banner photo by Eva Schneider

Photos of artwork by James Slater

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