Babette Harvey

My first experience with clay was in 1972 during my freshman year in college. I remember walking around the campus in wet clay soaked clothes feeling like I was in nirvana. As an art major I was required to study a lot of different art mediums and I gradually focused more on drawing and painting than on clay. I figured that I would become an illustrator or a painter when I left school but as life would have it I didn’t make my first career in the arts.

For many years I had to settle for doing art in my spare time. In 1987 I decided that I needed to go back to school to start a career in the arts which I hoped would bring me creative fulfillment along with a good living. I took a few classes at the local community college and reintroduced myself to some of the mediums that I had studied before. Working with clay sparked the same creative excitement I felt 20 years earlier. I found that I could combine my drawing and painting with the satisfying tactile experience of working with clay.

In 1992 I began a serious study of ceramics at Oregon College of Arts and Crafts in Portland, Oregon. Finally in 1997 I built a studio in my basement and began my full time career as a clay artist. I now make my living by selling my art at local galleries and shows.

My work includes figure sculptures, flower vases, large wall platters and fans, teapots, and bowls. I use relief carving, sgraffito, and handmade stamps to decorate my pieces.

I do all carving free hand making every piece unique. I fire in an electric kiln to cone 6.

Artists Statement

I use nature imagery in my art because nature is where I find beauty, solace, and delight. I create some of my art to express my feelings and thought about the natural world and the human relationship with it. For example, I carve nature imagery into the ‘flesh’ of some of my figural pieces creating a sense of the skin being pulled back. Beneath

 Babette Harvey

our outer facade it is easy to see that we are made of the same stuff that all living things are made of, we are dependent on the natural world which we are a part of. We need to walk more softly on the earth.

At other times I create pieces purely for the visual experience, I enjoy the simple beauty of form and design. The American philosopher, John Dewey once wrote, “There are values and meanings that can be expressed only by immediately visible and audible qualities, and to ask what they mean in the sense of something that can be put into words is to deny their distinctive existence, I like that.

Carving Techniques

Relief carving means that I carve clay away from around the image that I have drawn on the piece. This makes the image higher than the rest of clay. To begin the carving I let the clay piece dry until leather hard then draw a pencil design on the surface, I use very small hoop tools to remove the clay from around the drawing which allows the image to stand up from the surface of the clay. I continue carving inside the design with smaller tools to create depth within the design. The smallest tool, a pin tool, is used to make the small details in the flowers, bamboo, animals, or sometimes to write words.

After the pieces are carved I let them dry and then fire them to a low temperature (bisque). They can be stained at this stage. I sponge black stain over each piece and wipe the stain away. It comes off the higher parts while remaining in the recesses giving further depth and outline to the image. The pieces are then fired to the final temperature.

Sgraffito carving means that the image itself is carved away. This makes the image recessed. For this type of carving I let the piece dry until leather hard then paint liquid clay (slip) over the surface. After the slip has dried a little I carve designs through it to reveal the light clay underneath. The designs have to be done freehand because even the most lightly drawn pencil line will cause a groove in the slip and show up after the final firing.