Artist Bio

“Maguelonne Ival (Mag) was born and raised in France, lived for a few years in England (Birmingham) and New Zealand (Dunedin) and moved to Corvallis, Oregon (USA) in 2004. She started ceramics there and never stopped.   The pandemic made her realize how central ceramics is to her life, and led her to create her company “Terre des Oules” (loosely translated “land of ceramics”). Mag sells her ceramics online (on this website and her Etsy store) and at craft markets around Oregon (see this page for upcoming events), has published an article about ceramics on the online site Oregon Artswatch and has been teaching colored clay workshops around Oregon.

Mag uses porcelain and colored clay to create both functional and sculptural ceramic pieces. She creates patterns with the colored clay, using the Japanese Nerikomi technique, then uses these patterns to Hand-build  some pieces, or add handles or decorative accents to Wheel-thrown pieces.

Lately she has been making egg-shaped or spherical sculptures on the wheel that can be balanced on a tripod base, stacked or nestled within each other so you can interact with them. She decorates them in various ways by carving, using colored slip, Nerikomi patterns and any other techniques she can dream up, some requiring soap bubbles or cheese cloth.

Artist Statement

I use porcelain and colored clay to create both functional and sculptural ceramic pieces using the Nerikomi technique and various other ones I am developing using colored slip (liquid clay). My pieces are walking the line between highly decorated and colorful patterns combined with white porcelain to find the right balance. Sometimes my pieces are saturated with bright colors or , on the contrary, the added pattern is just an accent to enhance the white porcelain vessel.

I love to stretch my techniques and have been experimenting with both non-figurative and figurative decorations on my pots. I create hand-built vessels with Nerikomi patterns or take strips off my Nerikomi block and attach them to my wheel-thrown pots in different ways. Lately I have been making handles out of Nerikomi “ribbon” that sometimes go through the pot. I also love carving Nerikomi patterns to transform the design.

My two main collections are “Eggocentrics” and “Motifs”.

“Eggocentrics” are mostly egg-shaped or spherical sculptural pieces that can sometimes be used as vases, containers or light holders, but the main focus is imagination. I let it run wild to decorate these pieces in weird yet relatable ways. Lately, I have been stacking, nesting or balancing these sculptures on tripod bases so you feel compelled to interact with them.

“Motifs” is more focused on the Nerikomi technique to create patterns in the clay and create functional pieces but has been expanding to include ceramic techniques with colored slip as well as colored clay.