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In most villages of West Africa it is traditional for women to head the art of pottery-making, while the men hunt. African mothers teach the hand-building method to their daughters, and so on.When Africans were brought to the Caribbean, specifically Jamaica, they brought their ideas and culture. Consequently, this technique known as African coiling was practiced and left there by our ancestors. Today the African coiling technique is still being practiced by many potters and ceramic artists in Jamaica.

The technique involves the making of clay sausages just big enough to fit comfortably in the palm. Each clay sausage is then held between the palm and the forefinger. With a circular motion the clay is pressed into the other palm, rapidly creating the base of the vessel. The same pattern is repeated to build the body of the vessel. As the form gets higher, the coils are then sealed with the fingers or wooden tools

Juliet Bacchas Wins Best Of Show

Monson Arts Council Spring Art Exhibition

Juliet Bacchas of Juliet Rose Gallery has won Best of Show at the Monson Arts Council spring art exhibition, The Dance of Texture, Light & Color! Naturally, Juliet and Linda are very happy about this award which was given for her ceramic porcelain sculpture called Banana Walk.

You are invited to attend this exciting show --- details below --- which will be running for two more weekends in Monson. Juliet and Linda will be at the show on Friday evening from 6 - 8 p.m. If you can't come then, there are plenty of other opportunities to see this beautiful show.

Pictured above, Nancy Bryant, coordinator of the Monson Arts Council art show gives Juliet Bacchas a check for $1200 -- her award for winning Best of Show with her ceramic sculpture entitled Banana Walk.

"The Dance of Texture, Light & Color." is at the House of Art, 200 Main Street, Monson. For directions and more info: www.monsonartscouncil.com.

You might like to attend the show and enjoy a jazz concert on the lawn at the House of Art on Saturday, April 26.

The show is open Fridays, April 18 & 25 from 4 -8, Saturdays, April 19 & 26, 10a.m - 4p.m and Sundays, April 13, 20, 27, from noon - 4 p.m.

Come and see, and bring a friend.

Highlights From Art Off The Main held in october 2007 at the Puck building New York.

Linda and Juliet, of the Juliet Rose Gallery & Studio in Monson MA. Recently displayed their work at Art off the Main. A show held in New York with the aim of promoting veteran artist as well as up and coming artist who work in all mediums.The show was well attended by fellow caribbean artist who also displayed their work as well as some of our current pottery students, who took the trip down from massachusetts to view the various pieces of art on display and to give us some moral support.

Photo : Our display

Photo: Linda, having a conversation with a client and one of our students, Maureen.

Photo:Opening night.

Photo: Juliet, Linda and three of our students.

Photo: A snapshot of our surroundings.

Monson Ceramic Artists Give College Workshop, Exhibit in Kingston, Jamaica

Linda Spelko and Juliet Bacchas, owners of the Juliet Rose Gallery & Studio in Monson, recently visited The Edna Manley College of the Visual Arts in Kingston, Jamaica, where they met with David Dunn, head of the Ceramics Department, and 2nd and 3rd year students for a workshop. Linda demonstrated creating a bowl on the pottery wheel, utilizing a slurry technique for decorating the work. Juliet demonstrated her modified technique for African coiling.

Photo : Linda Spelko demonstrates wheel throwing to students in a workshop at The Edna Manley College of the Visual Arts in Kingston, Jamaica. The Monson ceramic artist is co-owner of Juliet Rose Gallery and Studio on Reimers Road.

Photo: Juliet Bacchas demonstrates her modified version of the African Coil technique for building bowls for students at her alma mater, The Edna Manley College of the Visual Arts, in Kingston, Jamaica.

Mr. David Dunn, a lecturer and world acclaimed master potter demonstrated his wheel throwing techniques, which Linda Spelko video taped for use in the Juliet Rose Gallery pottery classes. Juliet and Linda also had the honor of placing pieces on a mural, designed by Mr. Dunn, on the walls of the department of ceramics at the school of art. The mural is still a work in progress.

Photo: Mr. Dunn demonstrating his throwing technique.

Photo: Juliet and Linda placing small pieces of tile on a mural designed by Mr. Dunn.

The Monson artists also worked one on one with Phillip Supersad, a lecturer and artist at The Edna Manley College, which is Ms. Bacchas' alma mater.

The forms created in the workshop are on exhibition at the Revolution Gallery in Kingston. The title of the exhibit is "Bowled Over."

David Dunn and Phillip Supersad will be conducting a workshop at the Juliet Rose Galley & Studio in 2008.

Juliet Rose Galley & Studio offers pottery classes in Monson on an ongoing basis. Students are welcome to attend classes by arrangement.

Leonia P. McKoy was born 1979 in Kingston Jamaica. She has been artistic from as early as she can remember. For her, anything creative was worth doing. It was not surprising then that after finishing high school , she enrolled at Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts. It was there that she had her first encounter with clay. “It was love at first touch”. She found that clay enabled her to be creative in endless ways.

Leonia graduated with honours from college with a diploma in ceramics, having received the most coveted award: the Dean’s award for the Most Outstanding Student of the School of Visual Arts. She is intrigued by rhythm and movement, and highly inspired by nature, especially the waves of the sea , and the unfolding of a leaf or flower. Her wit is hard to miss, which is visible in the use of lines and shapes in her forms. Leonia’s pieces are initially made on the potter’s wheel and then altered. Her three consecutive entries in the Jamaica cultural development commission {JCDC} fine arts competion{1999-2001] has yielded her two bronze medals and one gold. She has taken part in various group exhibitions in a number of galleries in Kingston, Jamaica. Some of these include the National Gallery of Jamaica, Mutual Life Gallery, Revolution Gallery and Contemporary Art Centre.

Leonia had her first solo exhibition at the revolution gallery in 2006. She currently works from her studio in coopers hill St. Andrew, Jamaica, West Indies. She makes exquisite functional pieces such as bowls , bottles, vases and unusual large sculptural forms.