Skip to content

Babette Deggan's Christmas pottery is on display this Sunday

The Bowen artist returned from her other home in France just in time for the holidays.
Photo
Babette

I am home again from my other home in France, where I and my artist husband, Paul, spend every summer in a medieval hill village in the rugged Auvergne. There, the only pottery I produce are simple bowls and ceramic sculptures, to be glazed and fired as raku pieces by families that come from the surrounding villages on a fall day as a fundraising for the local heritage association. This special event is organized with the help of my Canadian potter friend, Ronda Green, who flies out from Vancouver for this annual firing.

Here on Bowen, I cannot wait to get back to my studio where I can get my hands around an unpromising lump of mud and turn it into a piece of brittle and lasting beauty. 

But I am never idle in my native France. My creative and manual skills find satisfying outlets in masonry and carpentry as Paul and I work daily on the restoration of what a local historian calls “a medieval gem,” a tiny and humble stone house, in the next village, a hundred metres from the ruins of a castle which, in the seventeenth century, Cardinal Richelieu had destroyed when the local lords posed a threat to the king.

Pottery is a wonderful way to stay sane during endless winter rains and makes my homecoming a richly rewarding event and ample compensation for missing those idyllic summer days on the island.

As in past years, my work is on display at my Christmas pottery sale in my home at 234, David Road, on Sunday, December 16, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

For more info please email bpdegganhotmail.com or 947 9921.