Wild Rose Pottery for decorative Oriental Tiles & Zodiac Tiles

			Wild Rose Pottery was established in 1975 by Maureen and Barry Payne. They built the pottery in the woods behind their home which is located about 35km NE of Winnipeg, Manitoba, just on the edge of beautiful Bird's Hill Provincial Park.

Maureen was the original potter in the family. She studied pottery at college in England from 1963 to 1966. After emigrating to Canada in 1967, Maureen and Barry set up a small space in their basement in their Winnipeg home. In 1973, they moved out into the country and built their new home in the woods. The family, Richard and Sarah, and the pottery business followed over the next few years.

Wild Rose Pottery
Maureen's main interest is throwing pottery on the wheel (it's quite magical to watch), and glaze decoration. Her throwing demonstrations are always enjoyed by pottery visitors. She is also the kiln loading and firing expert with an amazing ability to use every square inch of kiln space. In this picture, she has her quality control glasses on, carefully checking all the tiles on the racks before she loads them into the kilns.

			Barry has been interested in pottery since he met Maureen in England in 1965. Although his career in the aerospace industry consumed much of his time and creative energy, he continued to get more and more involved in the pottery. So much so, in 1998 they decided it was time for a lifestyle change, and Barry became a full time potter. His main interests in the pottery apart from clay and glaze preparation is slab built pottery and tiles, sculpture and making and firing hand built Raku forms. In this picture, Barry is using traditional Chinese brushes and glaze to create the "Chinese Painting" tile.

	Richard does lots of the heavy jobs, as you see he is a big chap. Unloading and pugging the clay is one of his main jobs. He also seems to enjoy assembling the hundreds of tile boxes we use. In these pictures he is: pugging clay, attaching hangars to the back of the tile frames, and assembling tile boxes.

			His primary interest outside of his work is swimming. He swims with the Special Olympics and with the Manitoba Marlins swim club. He has represented his Province many times at the Special Olympics National Games, and he just missed representing Canada at the 2000 Sydney Para-Olympic Games. Currently he swims 4 times a week and is in training for the 2006 National Summer Games. Here you see him with his "spoils" from the 2005 Provincial Games.

	Sarah has worked for many years in the pottery during her spare time. She paid her way through university as a result of her efforts. Sarah graduated from the University of Winnipeg in 2003 with degrees in Sociology and Criminology. Her career in the education field does not give her too much time. But on the other hand her outside interests, horses and traveling, stretch her resources so fortunately she still puts in quite a bit of time with us to get a bit of extra pocket money. In the pottery, she turns her hand to most jobs, but especially these days decorating the tiles, where you need an artistic bent, a good eye and a steady hand.

			Here you see Sarah playing polo. She has also ridden Provincially in show jumping and Nationally in dressage. At one point, she was Junior Provincial Dressage Champion.

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	Updated: February 11, 2009 by OfficeSmarts.ca	Privacy Policy