Blue Heron Pottery was established in 1975. The functional stoneware is made using a hand-building technique that uses rolled slabs of clay. Each piece is cut out and individually impressed with lace to create a textural design. Handmade antique, as well as modern manufactured laces, are used for their particular patterns. The lace can be used repeatedly and is not harmed by the process. This unique line of practical pottery includes mugs, pitchers, tea sets, butter dishes, sitting and hanging planters, desk and utensil organizers, and a variety of vases.
Years of hand-building have given Jayn a familiarity with the medium that allows her to expand into whatever form draws her imagination. The slab vases that bend and curl show the precise stage of clay consistency when it is stiff enough to hold itself up and flexible enough to move into fluid shape.
I admire good words put together well ~ but I do not love them the way I love clay. Clay has always been my friend. It speaks to me in ways I do not have to understand in order to know. It shows me a part of myself that words have never found. It forgives me always and is very patient and gentle in its ways. I have had no other teacher that goes as deep as clay...I love its silence.
Jayn's most recent work is a return to her first love in clay - the coiled and paddled pot. This technique is as old as the first shaping of clay by human hands. Each piece grows over time in stages evolving in an organic spontaneous way into sculptural vessels. The shapes grow out of the world around her, nestled among the Appalachian hills and hollows.
" The fluid nature of the clay and its unique capacity to be transformed by fire into durable, functional expressions of the human hand captured my heart and imagination and continues to inspire my work."
-Jayn Avery