The late ceramic artist Linda Olafson of Mossbank was a dedicated supporter of the Mossbank and District Museum.
Today, the museum is still benefitting from her support through a donation of her ceramic works. One of the displays at the enormously popular Apple Pie Day in Mossbank on August 23 was a silent auction of ceramics made by Linda Olafson, who was a prolific artist and made hundreds of works. After her passing, her family donated the ceramics to the museum and selected pieces are being auctioned off for fundraising with all proceeds going to the Mossbank and District Museum.
“We think that she would be happy that her ceramics are helping the museum that she loved,” her granddaughter Cori Oddleifson said.
Olafson’s handcrafted ceramic flowers have been admired by royalty and non-royalty alike. She began making flowers out of pottery in 1970 after taking a University of Regina extension course. Oddleifson said that her grandmother’s pottery talents were mainly self-taught and she experimented with a lot of techniques. For example, she used ordinary kitchen items like a rolling pin and a strainer that she pushed clay through to make grass.
Oddleifson recalled Olafson’s cozy pottery studio with the warm smells of clay and the precious time spent observing her grandmother’s creativity at work. Olafson set up a home pottery studio and had her own kiln, complete supplies of paint and clay. It was reported that she stocked about 1,000 lbs. of clay to have on hand for filling her orders.
Olafson loved flowers having grown up on a farm near Mossbank where wildflowers abounded. She preferred making flowers from clay rather than producing typical pottery items. She later married Arni Olafson in 1945 when he was a staff pilot at the Royal Canadian Air Force training centre near Mossbank.
Olafson’s interest soon became full-time art. She became well known in the south by word-of-mouth and her works were sold in stores in Estevan and Brandon. She was commissioned for many pieces, including for a set of emblematic flowers for the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. But the highlight was when Olafson was commissioned to create a ceramic piece for Queen Elizabeth II that was presented during the Monarch’s visit to Moose Jaw in 1978. She created ceramic tiger lilies that were given as a gift from the city of Moose Jaw. As the artist, Olafson was also on hand to meet the Queen and Prince Philip and answer their questions about her art.
