Thompson valley potters’ guild Lifetime Member

Anne Eggelton        

Ann’s pottery experience goes back 37 years.  She was fascinated after watching a potter throwing on a potters wheel and started taking classes shortly after arriving in Kamloops in her early 30’s.

 Her first pottery course was in the basement of the Caribou College campus (now Thompson Rivers University) then located in the Indian Residential School in Kamloops.  When she began potting at home, she had a 2^nd hand potters wheel and a four cubic foot electric kiln and she was on her way!

She joined the Thompson Valley Potters Guild at the time she started selling her pottery and considered it a great honour to be asked to join.  She remembers jurying her own work so severely that she hardly had any pots to bring to the guild sales. 

She progressed from electric-fired work to gas-fired in 1994, when she built her own gas-fired brick kiln.  She loved the look of reduction fired pottery – iron spotting, copper reds, porcelain and celadon glazes lent an excitement to her pottery production.  She took a two week glaze development class with Robin Hopper at Metchosin College and came home with her next base glaze.

When her marriage ended, she got a “real” job as casual help at the Kamloops Library and continued to pot.  She found pottery much more rewarding, so making and selling pottery became her career.

 She worked exclusively as a production potter, took many workshops and courses and was able to apply this knowledge to her functional pottery though was never persuaded to change the direction of her work.  There were many good times especially at craft fairs, she made many great friends in the creative world, and made a living doing what she loved.

 Ann retired in 2010 but her work is still requested from customers at craft fairs and guild shows where her beautiful pottery and fine craftsmanship are still remembered