Down a quiet gravel road just outside the Covington city limits Elinor Maroney makes ceramic art.
In a downstairs studio she throws clay onto a pottery wheel, churning out three pieces in less than 10 minutes, explaining how she forms the clay from a lump into something that can eventually be a functional bowl, cup or other item.
Maroney is a profilic artist with her pieces displayed throughout her house. She jokes that since her husband, Bob, died 18 months ago she’s gotten “out of control.”
But that may not be such a bad thing since she is a member of a co-op gallery where her art is regularly displayed.
Starting this Saturday some of Maroney’s work will be featured in an exhibition called “Masked” at the Columbia City Gallery, 5117 Rainier Ave. S. in Seattle.
Among the masks on display are a pair she’s particularly proud of, a mask in the BaLuba style from the Congo in Africa and a red fox mask based on a style from the Yupik Tribe in Southwestern Alaska.
Maroney has always been involved in artistic endeavors but it wasn’t until her children, two boys and two girls, were older that she finished her bachelor’s degree, a full 22 years after she began working on it.
“The last two years I took nothing but art classes,” she said. “I was a stay across the street at the pottery studio kind of mom.”
A neighbor had a private studio in her yard where Maroney worked for 17 years and that was “an ideal situation.”
At 48 Maroney got her master’s degree in ceramics from Antioch University. Now 77 years old, Maroney remains active as an artist, not just creating but teaching as well.
She first got hooked up with Columbia City Gallery about five years ago when a friend of hers recommended she check it out. It’s a co-op of about 30 people and Maroney said she had to be juried into it.
“There are three others who do ceramic work, the rest are painters,” Maroney said. “It’s just been a nice arrangement for me. And after my husband died they were absolutely wonderful.”
Since she connected with the gallery she has been making more decorative pieces like masks in addition to the functional items Maroney has always made.
“I am also working on a low temperature firing technique called raku, where you fire it at a low temperature, then you put it in a barrel of sawdust and you let it cool,” she said. “I call it instant gratification pottery because you can drink tea from it 45 minutes after putting it in the kiln. It is very much a decorative technique.”
Because it is fired at a lower temperature for a shorter period of time, her raku pieces are more fragile, but well worth the effort for Maroney.
Come November, Maroney will spend two months teaching on a cruise ship with Princess Cruise Lines, but teaching is nothing new to her.
“I am teaching for Seniors Making Art at local senior centers,” she said. “I just did a class in Maple Valley. I’ve taught in Kent, Auburn, Bonney Lake, Burien.”
But the cruise ship teaching gig is new for her.
“I will be teaching pottery classes on a cruise ship that goes from Fort Lauderdale to Los Angeles, then we’ll pick up a new group of tourists then go back to Fort Lauderdale,” she said. “A couple of my friends that I met through the Washington Potters Association have taught pottery classes on cruise ships before so when I realized I had free time and was available then (her friend) put me in touch with the group. It looks very exciting.”
