Barbora Balaban
stop no. 15
Barbora was born in Prague and graduated from the Prague College of Graphic Art. In 1990, she immigrated to Canada with her family, settling in Ottawa.
In 1995, she began working with clay, joined the Ottawa Guild of Potters and took courses at St. Lawrence College and Fleming College in Haliburton. Barbora has taken numerous workshops offered by the Ottawa Guild of Potters and with top Canadian and U.S. Potters.
Balaban makes functional and decorative pieces, using slabs in combination with thrown elements. She likes experimenting with distorting and altering thrown pieces and adding texture by stamping, folding, carving, or simply adding more clay and decorating with slips and brush work. The contrast between the glazed and unglazed parts of the pots brings out the texture and the warmth of the clay. Most of her work has some function with sculptural content. Her work is high-fired pottery in oxidation.
“After moving into the woods, I became surrounded by large flower beds, vegetable gardens, birds, frogs, snakes, foxes and other wildlife creatures. That is when I realized I that need to make my pottery more colourful and fun.“
Crown and Pumpkin 