When Meghan Greenlay signed up for a pottery class on a whim, little did she know that nine years later she would be selling her work far and wide.
The artistically inclined Greenlay had worked with wood and metal before but never considered clay until a friend invited her to join a class at the Winnipeg Art Gallery-Qaumajuq.
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Meghan Greenlay has dedicated hours at the potter’s wheel honing her craft.
She was immediately taken with the medium but admits her skill on the potter’s wheel didn’t come easy. Hours of practice and note-taking ensued as she honed her craft. And as she learned how to tear, measure, roll and mould, she found she was gaining a deeper understanding of herself.
The sculptor was being sculpted.
“Clay has been part of my healing journey. You have to be very patient and perceptive when it comes to this medium. To be able to make beautiful things when you are struggling has been an incredible release to me as an artist. You have a tough month, you hop into your studio, you work on something that is going to be beautiful and it rewrites your story for you,” she says.
Her spring collection, Jardin de Printemps, is whimsical and playful, heavily inspired by her trip to France last fall.
Carefully hand-moulded from porcelain clay, hardened by fire and finished to a shimmery lustre, you can’t help but smile when you see her pieces.
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There are small plates adorned with porcelain bows, perfectly sized to hold a few rings, and tiny rectangular and square vases embellished with the graceful curve of a swan’s neck. Pastel cats have candle holders perched upon their backs and there are tulips galore atop hat pins, sat on brooches, and dangling off earrings.
Miniature vases with doors and windows painted on them house baby cacti, and porcelain strawberries on gold pins can be attached to satchels, hats, bags, coats… or not. Because not everything Greenlay makes needs to serve a purpose. Far from it.
“It’s not necessary for everything to have a function. Sometimes things don’t have to be useful to be enjoyed. Sometimes their only function is beauty… and that’s OK,” she says.
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Alongside her pottery Greenlay also runs Petit Magasin.
Recent works have more of a bite. On her @megdoespottery Instagram account, tooth-shaped charms hang off gold link necklaces and raw pearls are embedded in ornate hardware, a wink towards her upcoming fall collection, which will be based on winter’s garden.
“I am going to be incorporating more pearls into pieces as well as continuing with functional tableware and adding in some larger vessels. Every piece is made by hand, like all my others, and they will all be similar but they will never be exactly alike,” she says.
Alongside her pottery Greenlay also runs Petit Magasin, a market she founded five years ago to support and highlight the works of local creatives.
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Greenlay says she hopes to have a gallery show some time over the next few years.
So far she has hosted 150 artists and is currently in the planning stages for a double whammy this winter when the market goes on the road.
“I have two more events slotted for this year. It will be our 10th installation, which is a big one and it’s very exciting because the market will be on the move! As well as hosting in Winnipeg I will also be hosting Petit Magasin in Montreal,” she says.
The multi-hyphenate — she’s also a hairdresser, a boxing instructor and a photographer — has a lot to look forward to on the horizon but what would be her ultimate dream?
“I would love to have a gallery show some time over the next few years; that would be a dream come true. It would be a nice full circle for me seeing as I started educating myself in a gallery. It would be great to fill a gallery room. I sell at galleries, which is lovely, but I think to have a show where I tell a story and install a collection would be incredible,” she says.
av.kitching@freepress.mb.ca
AV Kitching
Reporter
AV Kitching is an arts and life writer at the Free Press. She has been a journalist for 24 years and has worked across three continents writing about people, travel, food, and fashion. Read more about AV.
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