RAE DELAI
My love affair with clay began in 2009 when I attended a beginner’s pottery class with the wonderful Mecki Kracke. With a lot of guidance, my first wonky pot was born and so too my obsession.
In 2014, my 87-year-old Aunty Ena asked me to make a cremation urn for her ashes. She wanted her ashes in the urn to be thrown from the top of the Gillies Range when the time came. That single request changed the direction of my pottery forever and led me into the world of memorial ceramics.
Today I specialise in creating custom and off the shelf cremation urns through my business, White Lily Urns. I sell through my website, whitelilyurns.com.au, and my Etsy shop, Cloud8Workshop. My work has found homes with families throughout Australia and overseas.
My greatest strength as a potter is also my greatest weakness: I can’t make the same thing twice. Production pottery and matching dinner sets are definitely out of my wheelhouse. I will do almost anything to get a nice pot, for example staying up until 2am firing a gas kiln or hand-mixing a batch of slip for six hours after the mixer motor goes up in flames.
I use a combination of hand building, slip casting with vintage moulds and a little wheel work to create meaningful pieces for families. I love colour and use a lot of underglazes, boldly coloured glazes, lustres and actual photographs. I also have a fascination with orbs and spheres. To me they represent strength, completeness and the idea of something that has no end, making them especially meaningful forms for memorial art.
My greatest pottery love is Raku firing. I never tire of the excitement, smoke and unpredictability of opening a reduction bin. Fortunately, Raku is perfectly suited to memorial urns.
I create urns for both people and pets—because pets are people too. My favourite saying is, “Sometimes there are no words, so we have to say it with Art.” That belief guides everything I make.
When I’m not creating memorial pieces, I enjoy making “fun stuff”; spoon rests, vases and planters; which I sell at the wonderful Cairns Potters Club Markets. My “Cloud 8 Workshop” under my house is my happy place and I am so blessed to be able to spend my days doing what I love.
