Potter Pat Schendel is sure her protégé will surpass her in the end.
The president of the Fraser Valley Potters' Guild, Schendel met Brandon Martin three years ago at the Surrey campus of Kwantlen Polytechnic University, where her 100-member group holds its monthly meetings.
The pair struck an immediate friendship. Not only did they have a connection through David Lloyd, a ceramics instructor at Kwantlen (where Martin was studying) and the guild's vice president, but they also shared a love for crystalline glazes.
Schendel took Martin under her wing and the two developed the craft, in their own unique ways: Hers is a more conservative approach, staying with the same glazes and forms as the past two decades; his is a more experimental venture. "He's very much trial-and-error, more of a techie," she said. "It's wonderful to watch."
Tomorrow (Thursday), the mentor and her student will open a new exhibit in the Atrium at Coquitlam's Place des Arts, showcasing about 60 vases, bottles and bowls covered in exploding crystals of various shapes and sizes.
Perfecting the crystalline glaze isn't an easy task and it requires plenty of patience and practice. That's because the glazes are fickle and take time to formulate and fire in the kiln. Less than half of the pieces turn out and, many times, the crystals don't break on the surface. "Crystals are very, very temperamental," Schendel said. "The process is a precise science."
In general, here's how the magic works: The specialized glaze - made up mostly of grit, silica and zinc - is applied very fluidly (a catch basin and pedestal are made for each piece to contain the run-off) and, while in the kiln at about 2,100 degrees F, the crystals grow inside the glaze.
They start out as tiny "seeds" that can appear anywhere on the piece. When the glaze is first fired in the kiln, everything melts. Then, there is a cooling period where the crystals burst on the seeds. And the longer the glaze stays on at that temperature, the larger the crystals mature. The typical cooling time is between six and 12 hours.
Best of all, the results are always unpredictable. "It's chemistry and nature coming together," Martin said. "Like a plant, you put something in a pot and you see how it turns out."
When the stars align, the pieces can be mesmerizing, with the crystals shimmering and shifting like holograms. Halos can also appear, Schendel said.
As for her process, she works in a home studio on a computerized kiln with electric fire that she can control. It's one she bought from a Langley store after a major meltdown with a manual kiln that had a rod. "That was 15 years ago and I have never looked back since. I've also gotten better results with it," she said of her digitalized machine.
Schendel's pieces have caught the eye of many admirers: she has created series such as flowers, waves and lava pools.
Luckily, for Tri-City residents, she and Martin will be teaching their skill to 12 participants at a three-night workshop at Place des Arts (the sessions run May 16, 23 and 30). They will work with the Cone 6 crystalline glaze, a rare one in the Lower Mainland that produces smaller crystals, Schendel said.
The opening reception for the exhibit Crystalline Porcelain is at 7 p.m. on May 8 at Place des Arts (1120 Brunette Ave., Coquitlam). Also launching that night are displays from Lil Chrzan (Illuminations, oil on canvas) and Anouk Jonker (With Matter and Means, multiple media). To sign up for the workshop, call 604-664-1636 or visit placedesarts.ca.
