The Interlake continues to be well represented in CBC’s nationwide pottery competition.
Jen Sonnenberg of Stonewall is competing in the eight-episode series called The Great Canadian Pottery Throw Down, which features amateur potters from across the country.
Each week, the artists compete to create a main pottery piece while also taking part in a smaller skill test. And at the end of every episode, one potter is sent packing from their hub on Vancouver’s Granville Island.
Episode 6 aired last week, and Sonnenberg continues to stand her ground.
“Continuing on in the competition into Episode 6 was so exciting and unexpected. This week’s challenge was to create a nine-piece place setting for a Michelin Star restaurant, with a guest appearance from chef Mike Robbins of Vancouver’s AnnaLena restaurant actually giving feedback and plating our sets with their food,” she said.
“It was an opportunity I’ve never had before and thought was so incredible. Making functional work — things that people are going to use like mugs, bowls and plate — are some of my favourite things to make. So for me, there was a lot of pressure to create a cohesive set that would elevate the food.”
Sonnenberg decided to create a set that was very sculptural in form and was inspired by “lucky stones” — rocks with holes eroded into them that were picked up from Manitoba beaches.
“While we waited for our pieces to dry and be fired in the kiln, we had a spot test in which we had to pull as many handles off of pre-made mug bodies as we could in 20 minutes. Pulling handles is a method of adding handles to mugs,” she said.
“We had to try and make our handles as close as we could to the handles that judge Brendan Tang made as a demo. It was a very close race, but I ended up getting the most done in the time frame and won first place.”
It was a close call for the judges, but Sonnenberg breathed a sigh of relief when she found out she’d continue in the competition.
“I was really happy with the soft organic forms that I created, but in the end it came down to me and Renu (a fellow competitor) as to who was going to go home this episode, with the judges feeling that some of my plates were a bit too small,” she said.
“I was grateful to have won the spot test and continue on to the semi-final episode.”
Episode 7 of The Great Canadian Pottery Throw Down, the semi-final, will air on CBC on Thursday, March 29 at 8 p.m. and on CBCGem.
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