artist profile

Elizabeth Burtt - ceramic artist

Based in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Elizabeth Burtt loves working with clay and fibre.  She is a juried member of the New Brunswick Crafts Council, The Nova Scotia Designer Crafts Council and the Cape Breton Centre for Craft and Design.  Much of her design inspiration comes from Asian textiles and woodblock prints.  Read her blog here.

The Shellac Resist Process

Elizabeth’s teacups are special...hand-made in a painstakingly long process. Read on below and tell us afterwards if knowing that didn’t make your tea taste so much better!  See more images here.

1. ✤Vessels thrown & created and allowed to dry to a bone-dry state. Blemishes removed with fine sanding.
   

2. ✤Patterns transferred onto vessels using carbon paper. 
   

3. ✤Designs hand-painted with shellac and allowed to dry overnight. 
   

4. ✤When shellac has hardened, wet sponge scrub, eroding away the clay around the shellac patterns, creating a relief surface.
   

5. ✤Shellac process repeated several times to create several dimensions on the surface. (Some vessels have as many as 5 different shellac layers!) 
   

6. ✤Bisque firing and subsequent fine tuning & smoothing with sandpaper. 
   

7. ✤Glazing and firing to cone 6 in an oxidation atmosphere.
   

Elizabeth works with mid fire porcelain clay because of its fine texture and white colour. By using fine particle clay, a greater degree of detail can be achieved in the water erosion technique. The white colour of the body serves to enhance the colour and textures of the clay