NORWAY — Have you ever thought about where the clay and glaze for ceramics comes from? Rebecca May Verrill from Running With Scissors in Portland will give an MFA Thesis slide lecture and demonstration from 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday, June 7, at the Center for an Ecology-Based Economy.

Verrill, originally from Otisfield, has moved back to her home state and will share slides from her MFA thesis project and demonstrate the making of seed bombs. Participants will engage in a discussion about sustainable practice and use of local materials in the ceramic process.

Verrill said, “By making intentional connections with the origins of our food and the objects we surround ourselves with, we are participating in a cycle that ties us closer to our community and soil beneath our feet. As consumers, we have the power to contribute to or break society’s predetermined cycle.”

Her vegetable seed pods, which are slipcast from locally dug iron-bearing earthenwares, filled with non-GMO native seeds and soil, and left unfired, combine aspects of consumption, agriculture, mining and manual labor. There will be a limited supply of seed pods available for purchase after the demonstration.

“I aim for my work to give back to the community that has nourished and supported me, and to generate new life beyond my outstretched hands,” said Verrill. “I believe that when we buy, consume and dispose of objects, with little concern to origins or final destinations, we are contributing to an existing problem, instead of working to create a lower impact way of living.”

The Center for an Ecology-Based Economy is “dedicated to the conservation, revitalization and sustainable management of Western Maine’s renewable resources and the development of resilient, thriving and sustainable communities that our children and grandchildren will be able to thrive on and inherit.”

The slide lecture is free and open to the public by donation. The Center for an Ecology-Based Economy is at the Commons, 447 Main St.


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