Jeffrey Taylor has been honing his craft as a potter for the past ten years in his character home/studio – a converted 1928 schoolhouse in Duval, Saskatchewan. He first encountered pottery in grade 12 at boarding school in Caronport. Later he studied in the fine arts program at Red Deer College in Alberta, and after settling in Saskatchewan he got involved with the Saskatchewan Craft Council, sitting on their board for several years. He has been the participant in an ArtsSmarts grant from the Saskatchewan Arts Board for an historical project at Raymore School.

Serving up dishes for everyday use, Newschool Pottery is well known for touchable textures, bold colours, and unusual patterns, resulting in unique functional art. While Jeffrey repeats uniform shapes and sizes, no two pieces are exactly alike. Unusual tools like gear wheels and syringes add unique imprints, splotches and strokes. He has worked especially hard at designing dripless teapots with secure lids that won’t tip out, an extra hole in the lid to hook a tea ball,and special handles for easier lifting.

Not all of his art has a function for everyday use. In experiments with setting stained glass in clay, the function is in the message: a ceramic mask (part of a juried show) reflects on judgmentalism; ceramic spaceship-shaped lamps with stained glass windows consider the relationship between religion and science; large pieces composed of smaller rounded shapes illuminated by mini-lights depict human cells with a variety of colours, evoking the Christian concepts of light and of the Church as the body of Christ.

A facilitator by nature, Taylor occasionally hosts creative retreats, arts forums, and holds two open houses per year—summer and Christmas.

Expanding into photography and videography, Jeffrey is drawn to the landscape close to home and to northern Saskatchewan. He desires to explore, preserve, and document that land. He has also used these skills for online pottery demonstrations, weddings, graduations, and the Last Mountain Times newspaper, and has served as the official photographer and videographer at Arlington Beach Camp.

A non-exhaustive list of Jeffrey’s other artistic skills includes drawing, painting, carpentry, sewing, singing, guitar, harmonica, songwriting, poetry, and acting. He is brilliant with computers (a Mac fan) and is mechanically inclined.

Several Saskatchewan venues carry Jeffrey’s pottery, including Traditions Handcraft Gallery in Regina, Silver Street Jewelers in Saskatoon and Prince Albert, The Comfort Zone in Strasbourg, and his own studio gallery at home (call ahead, 306-725-3245).

Adapted from the Last Mountain Times BUSINESS PROFILE, “Newschool Arts: so much more than just pottery,” July 22, 2008, page 8.