Making pots when facing 90

By Eric Roberts, Founding President of the South Vancouver Island Potters Guild

Throughout my ceramic career I have interacted with potters of many different creative journeys. Some started very early but didn’t ever get intrenched in the process and left for more interesting endeavours. Others felt they were getting past their creative years and stopped only to regret “retiring” too soon. Others were forced by health issues to abandon their joy with clay and then there are those like me making pots and having the number 90 staring you in the face.

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My career didn’t start until I was “encouraged” to take a class when in my fifties and after about twenty some years of “making pots” and then abandoning four different types of kilns I was fortunate at age 77 to resume this craft if only as a simple hobby. Now 12 years later and pottery in eight sales outlets and having an annual show with 12 full tables to display I am facing the inevitable subject of physicality and age.

Where I once picked up my wheel and trotted into a MISSA workshop now I have to make sure my hands are wet to grip the 50-lb box of clay and not lose it when waddling from SUV to worktable. Stacking is out of the question. The time is close where the box will be opened and two 25-lb bags will be a reasonable lift.

Working with clay and dealing with the unhappy likelihood of arthritis in right hand and carpal tunnel in left hand is a problem that only the most stubborn potters endure. Yes, the most relaxing aspect of my “hobby” is being at the wheel.

So, trying to lift wet clay smoothly with funky hands results in many projects being thicker on one side that the other: having to use the needle more often to level the top and worst of having much more slurry and clay to recycle. I generally have at least one ice cream bucket of trimmings and slop curing for stiffness every week. (Will get to that later).

I use warm water except in only the really hot days of summer. It helps at my stage to keep the sponges and water quite clean and as the clay I choose is quite tacky all this just becomes another problem that needs to be overcome. Patience and more patience is required with more time centring the ball of clay and the resulting vessels becoming smaller as strength to wedge clay diminishes.  I have consolidated to a smaller electric kiln so loading and unloading becomes simpler. Continuing to create when you no longer can move tables or erect a tent means lots of family and relatives getting gifts or else you should seek a commercial outlet. AND that can be discouraging if the venue price split is anything above 60/40.

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I find it impossible to make pots if I am feeling weariness approaching and sooner work mornings and evenings. If you are working with this complicated art form in your eighties it simply means you absolutely cherish this in your daily activities. When naps are forming in your routine then adhere to this message.

As far as continuing to get pleasure from glazing, I am not afraid to purchase exciting glazes like the Jungle Gem series and offer price advice that if you can use a base glaze or flux of your own making initially then the addition of specialty glazes can be reduced considerably. Another aspect of this physical deterioration is doing more hand building and use of extruder projects.  My recycle clay is wedged as soon as it won’t stick to the table and this soft working can usually result in an almost perfect body. If it is less than that then I make small saucers, wiggly toadstools and colorful bee baths. The internet is loaded with ideas. Trying to talk galleries or craft stores to take an interest in bowls is fairly futile. They want mugs, mugs and then more mugs.

To my chagrin I was never a brush artist but always tried. Now I must brace my arm or arms to quiet the shakiness even when carving, sculpting or delicate brush work.

Well that mostly covers my journey from when my wife June and I introduced Woodshed Pottery to hundreds of tourists on the road to Butchart Gardens in Victoria with pit fire, raku, horsehair, electric and propane reduction kilns. As the founding president of the South Vancouver Island Potters Guild, I like to honor my wife’s memory by sticking to this magical world of working with clay.

P.S. December 14, 2026, is fast approaching.