Maker to Watch: Rachel Saunders
When Rachel Saunders quit her day job at a clothing company in L.A. almost three years ago, she was moving home to follow her dream to work with her hands. Today, this Victoria-based ceramicist is living it, getting her hands dirty crafting earth into stunning vessels. “I think one of the most engaging and beautiful parts about handmade pottery is the material itself,” she says. “It’s so neat to see all the different colours and imperfections that can come out of an organic matter that literally comes from the earth.” To highlight the raw material, she leaves most of her vessels unglazed or brushes only the inside with a translucent gloss. Her designs pair the rich clay of the Pacific Northwest with forms well suited to ikebana, the art of Japanese floral arrangement that stresses balance—evident in the sleekly designed Torus vase (pictured). “I was making these strange shapes that wouldn’t really fit the standard bouquet,” she confesses.
