Day 111 - The Art of the Bowl

Patti and I share a love of pottery. We are enamored with the work of Don Zver, who lives and works just outside of Hamilton, Ontario, and have amassed a nice collection of his pieces: mugs, a tea pot, cream and sugar servers, even a candy dish and chip-and-dip tray.

Now that we're in Fredericton, however, Zver's work is no longer easy to find. That's why we're so pleased to have found an up-and-coming local potter by the name of Danielle Lee, a student at a local College of Arts and Crafts who makes the most beautiful bowls.

At a recent open house and sale at the College, we got a chance to chat with Ms. Lee and see her working space. She was very welcoming and even let us see her collection of "seconds", pieces that didn't work out quite the way she wanted them to look. We loved the two bowls in the foreground of this photograph and, despite the artist's protestations to the contrary, we think they're perfect. We're delighted to have convinced her to sell them to us, bringing our collection of Danielle Lee bowls to four.

I had a lot of fun taking this photograph as well. First, I wanted to find a location for the bowls that would provide sufficient space but not too much background detail so that the bowls remain the centre of attention. Then I had to choose between a close-up shot, that caught more detail in the pottery but gave little hint of its lovely shape, or a picture from further away, that caught the shape but sacrificed texture and intimacy.

I took all kinds of shots, some with flash and others without, using the trusty tripod to give me ultimate flexibility. The picture I finally selected for this blog uses only natural light from the window behind the bowls and as small an aperture as the Olympus offers (f8) to ensure crisp focus throughout the frame.

No matter what I do, however, my photograph will never do true justice to Danielle Lee's artistry.