How local pottery is like fine wine

Cathy Terepocki has reshaped her career.

A potter for nearly two decades, Terepocki’s work was once highly decorative with layers of prints and gold. But now she’s paying special attention to sourcing local material and creating functional pieces.

She says she feels she is just getting started.

“I’ve only focused on a couple of small areas of the process… I just feel like there’s so much to learn, and there’s so much to explore.”

Lately, Terepocki has been exploring the Chilliwack River Valley to source her own clay. The material, she says, was formed 10,000 years ago and now has a rich red colour.

“There’s something about using this material that was formed so long ago that I think is pretty meaningful.”

Earlier this month, The Current toured the shop of retiring potter Herman Venema, where Terepocki often referred students interested in taking up the craft.

Today, we share our conversation with Terepocki about sourcing clay from her own backyard and where else to find it in the valley.

FVC: How did you get involved with pottery?

Cathy Terepocki: I actually went to Alberta College of Art and Design. I took ceramics as a major in art school. I did a BFA (Bachelor of Fine Arts) with a major in ceramics. Ceramics is sort of like the umbrella term for anything that has to do with clay. And the term ‘pottery’ is specific to using the potter’s wheel, which is just one of the tools that you can choose to use with clay.

So I do pottery and I was drawn to functional work when I did my arts degree in Alberta College of Art Design. Then I came to BC, and lived in Nelson for a while, and then lived in the Prairies for a little while. I've been here in Chilliwack for nine years. I have a home studio and I work full time as a potter here.

FVC: For someone like myself who is unfamiliar with clay, can you share the characteristics of what you might be looking for when you're potting?

Terepocki: Usually you choose clay based on what temperature you fire to—if you're firing electric, or if you're firing in like a gas kiln—what color you want it to be. Then you go to the clay store, the clay supply store, and you pick out a box of clay based on those things.

In the last, maybe six years, I’ve chosen to approach it a little bit differently where I dug clay from the Chilliwack River Valley and then I make work in response to the clay’s natural properties. I’m sort of approaching it in a different way than I used to, where the clay has sort of become a starting point for me. So the clay that I dig from around here out in Chilliwack is reddish—it looks grey in the ground, and then it ends up firing like a nice deep red colour in the kiln.

FVC: Can you speak to that a little bit more? How do you know it’s something that will work for your intended use?

Terepocki: I actually didn’t know. I had no idea about it. I just all of a sudden sort of— I know that there was a history of brick production in this area. And a lot of times when I would tell people that I was a potter, their connection to ceramics or clay or pottery or whatever would be that they—farmers around here would say ‘Oh yeah, I grew up with clay in the pond on a farm.’

So I knew that there was clay around here. But I had no idea what it would be like to work with [or] if I could even make anything with it. I had no idea.

I just started testing and I tested it. I did a big project with Urban Outfitters, like a big design project, and I sort of treated that like a grant. And I took some time to just test local clay and then once I tested it, once I figured out that I can make it work on the wheel, like actually make something out of it, then I had to figure out what temperature to fire it to [and] come up with a glaze that was compatible. So it was a lot of research, actually.

FVC: Now, when you’re out there looking, you know what to look for?

Terepocki: Oh yeah. I have a spot on private property, on a friend’s farm, that I’ve been digging consistently. And actually, a lot of the clay in the valley is pretty similar. It’s just a matter of finding a good supply of clay that works.

FVC: Is there something that makes the clay at the Chilliwack River particularly unique? Or has characteristics or qualities that you prefer?

Terepocki: Yeah, it was formed like 10,000 years ago when the glaciers melted. So it’s like glacial clay, which I think is interesting. There’s something about using this material that was formed so long ago that I think is pretty meaningful. Hematite in the rock around here—that’s a form of iron—is what gives it the red colour. So it has this really nice rich red colour that I like. It’s pretty pure.

I mean there’s a lot of clay around here, and there’s not a lot of use for it. So to be able to use a thing that is generally—it causes landslides, nobody has anything good to say around here about it. When I spoke to excavators about it, they just complained about it clogging up the shovel on their excavator. It doesn’t have any value. That’s another thing: I feel like there’s this thing that doesn’t seemingly have a lot of value and I like the idea of being able to make something out of something that is regarded as useless and a nuisance.

FVC: Where’s other places in the Fraser Valley one might find clay? Or have you worked with other clay in the region?

Terepocki: Yeah, there’s clay in Langley, and there’s clay—there’s actually a seam of clay I think that runs through the Fraser Valley. I’m sure if you dig down to a certain point, you can find clay anywhere. I have clay from Roberts Creek. My friends are building a house, and they dug down when they dug their foundation, they found clay; so I’m going to make some pieces for their house from the clay that was dug in the foundation. And that’ll take more testing to figure out how that clay works, if it’s similar to the clay here.

There’s kind of clay everywhere, I think. Maybe not everywhere, but it seems like there’s a seam that runs through the valley, which is why brick production was such a thing here. Except for farming, I think brick production was probably the main industry in the Fraser Valley. Clayburn and Kilgard, those were brick factories that were in production for years. Because there’s clay here.

FVC: Geographically, would you need to look for clay in a particular area? Would it need to be near a water source?

Terepocki: Yeah. Well, the clay that I dug was formed from particles kind of rubbing together as the glaciers melted, and then they became finer and finer and finer particles. That’s what clay is essentially. So, yeah, that’s how the clay around here was formed.

Even as kids, I’m sure a lot of people at some point, if they were along the river or at a pond or whatever, you dig down and you find clay. You know that it’s clay because it’s sort of sticky. If you coil it, if you make it into a coil, and you try to bend it, clay is kind of bendy. It’s called plasticity, it’s a different property than just dirt or topsoil.

FVC: The clay that you find in the Fraser Valley, or particularly in Chilliwack, does it lend well to a particular type of ceramic? Or is it versatile?

Terepocki: No, it’s pretty low temperature, so it’s specific to that. The reason that people wouldn’t do it, the reason that most potters wouldn’t do it is because it is a lot of work. There’s a lot of work involved in harvesting the clay. I process it all. I take out, I sieve it and take out all the organic bits and so there’s more to it than just digging it out of the ground and putting it on the wheel. It takes a lot of work. It’s a big commitment that way and that would be the reason that most people would not bother to go out and dig their own clay.

The work that I make from it is kind of about, it's mostly about place, and process, and material. And there’s very little surface decoration because it’s really about the material, and it’s about the place. All the pieces are stamped with the geographical coordinates of where the clay comes from and that’s the only surface embellishment.

So that’s kind of what it’s about. The work that I was making before I started using the local clay was really highly decorative and it was fired three or four times with layers of prints and gold. I don’t do that kind of decoration on my surfaces anymore. I do these like minimal sort of utilitarian pieces that really are just about place and material.

FVC: Where can people find your work?

Terepocki: I have an online shop that I usually just promote on Instagram. If I’m going to have a sale, I’ll promote it on Instagram. And then I do pop-ups from time to time. I do a lot of pop-ups at Whispering Horse Winery, for example; they’re just down the road. So I do stuff there.

They have a similar approach. I feel like in some ways my work is really about terroir, the idea of wine-tasting like a place and it being all about where it’s grown, and how it’s grown. And it ends up having a flavour based on the minerals that are in the soil, and the environment, and all of those things.

So in some ways, it’s a good fit, because I feel like I’m considering the same types of things. So I do sales with them, and do pop-ups in different places, and then online, and then I do at least one open house at my studio where I’ll set up for a weekend. And then I have a lot of people that just contact me, and they come by the studio, they come to the studio by appointment. That totally works, too.

FVC: Is there anything else that maybe I didn't ask you about clay that could help the public understand it a little bit more? Or maybe pottery in general?

Terepocki: It’s one thing that is sometimes undervalued because they (people) don’t realize the time and energy and the thought, and the research and all of that, that goes into it. But I think it’s really important for people to understand that. I like educating the general public about where it comes from, and the work that goes into, and the thought that goes into making a functional piece.

Pottery is one of those things where I’ve been doing it—so I did a four-year degree and that was my focus and I feel like I still have just scratched the surface. I’ve been doing this for almost 18 years and I’ve only focused on like a couple of small areas of the process. I’ve done two different firing temperatures at this point. But I just feel like there’s so much to learn, and there’s so much to explore. It’s pretty amazing. I’m actually sad that Herman shut down because that was one of the few places that I would send people when they ask where they can take classes.

The Current recently reported on Abbotsford pottery legend Herman Venema. Read that story here.

Also, Terepocki’s work will be on display until April 25 at the Offbeat: Explorations in Clay exhibition presented by the Burnaby Arts Council. Find more information here.