Bill Reddick
Potter
| SITE # 3 |
318 McDonald Street, Port Perry | with Marion Meyers & Suzanne Villaincourt |
My work is informed and inspired by an era 1000 years ago in China when porcelain reached its zenith. I utilize and explore those ancient techniques.
Bill Reddick, a self taught artist, received meaningful ceramics experience while a student at Lakefield College School in the mid 70’s. After attending Queens University, he established, in 1982, a studio in Prince Edward County, Ontario. He now lives and works in Peterborough, Ontario.
Bill was deeply affected by Song Dynasty porcelain of China where he toured in 1998. In 2009 he traveled to Korea as a participating artist in the Cheongju World Craft Biennale. Informed by both these ancient classical Asian traditions, his work demonstrates a fluency of form, and technique, while expressing contemporary design.
At the request of former Governor General, Madame Adrienne Clarkson, Bill created the “Maple Leaf Service” which is now the official State Dinnerware for Canada, at Rideau Hall. Also, in 2001, he designed a dinner service for the Canadian Embassy in Japan. He was later asked to design dinnerware for the Prime minister’s residence at the request of the Canadiana Fund.
When the Covid Era began in March 2020, Bill immediately pivoted and became a baker, since he could not earn a living as a potter under the new circumstances. He channeled his creativity and inventiveness into developing a unique online business, which at its core consists of four gluten-free cakes he developed, which are shippable across Canada in one day.
They are described as “the best cake I’ve ever had” by most everyone who have experienced them. Bill is now creating cakes and porcelain at his studio and baking/firing both in his large gas fired kiln. He explains; “For inspiration, there is a common element between the cakes and porcelain. In both cases, I reached back into history to a time when a standard had been achieved that is unsurpassed.
For the porcelain, it was the Song Dynasty, and for the cakes it was a fudge icing I encountered in the 1960’s created by the Bregman Family Bakeries of Toronto in the 1930’s”. The cakes and the porcelain are the realization of Bill’s vision of excellence rooted in years of experimentation and experience.
He enjoys the process and says, “the icing on the cake(s), are the meaningful relationships with the community of individuals who have supported me and enjoyed the fruits of my labour.”
