About Me
My Specialties
Over the years I have developed a deep appreciation and love of the aesthetic of this art form. Personally, I am a functional potter who still enjoys creating work that people will use in their everyday lives. In this new age of technology it is nice to be able to produce handcrafted items for the home.
Bio
Marilyn, with her husband Gerry, own Ailsa Craig Village Pottery. Marilyn fell in love with the potters wheel in 1976 when she took her first pottery course at Fanshawe College in London. Her first studio was in the basement of their home. In 1996 she had enough of working in the small, dark space and decided to build a studio on the property. A decision that changed her life.In this age where technology rules the day, Marilyn finds great comfort in going back to the basics— creating with clay and sharing that joy with others.
Marilyn has studied working in clay at Beal Tech, the Haliburton School of Arts, The Odyssey Centre in North Carolina, has taken numerous workshops and attended many conferences. She loves going to NCECA the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts conferences
ences which travel from city to city all across the USA. These conferences are a great way to “recharge the batteries” because there is just so much to see and do: workshops, galleries, video screenings, lectures and shopping, shopping, shopping!
Perhaps the highlight of Marilyn’s pottery life was taking a workshop with Warren McKenzie in 2000. That was during a trip to New Zealand when a friend took her to a pottery shop and the owner said there was going to be a workshop with this distinguished potter that weekend. Plans were changed and Marilyn was fortunate enough to take a workshop with the father of North American pottery, in New Zealand of all places!
About the studio
A warm welcome to Ailsa Craig Village Pottery, Marilyn Barbe’s studio and showroom. Built in 1996, it was designed to complement similar outbuildings in the Village of Ailsa Craig. It is clad with board and batten and the roof design is similar to our home next door. The studio is located on the main floor. It is a complete working studio; big enough for six potters to work or study.
While Marilyn is currently not teaching in the studio, she does offer classes from time to time.
In July and August Marilyn is pleased to offer summer camps for children ages 6 and up.
Marilyn and Gerry take pride in the trees they have planted in the yard. They started collecting Carolinean Species trees in 1985 when Key Dewdney started his Carolinean Tree Project in London. To date they have a wonderful collection of these trees.