Nature Imprint, celebration of urban flora

It is in a sunny workshop by the banks of the Lachine Canal in Saint-Henri that Geneviève Gallant, founder of Nature Imprint , goes every day by bike. A ceramist, she shapes the clay in which she leaves her imprints: those of fresh plants forgotten on the vacant lots in her neighborhood.

sweet childhood

Since a young age Geneviève has been working with her hands “all alone because she is able to do it”. From the beer corks she crushed in her father's garage to the tools and furniture she now concocts. my favorite flowers that I had fun identifying with books in the library. It has always fascinated me! »

Once upon a time, adult life

Once her studies in visual arts are finished, she will have spent a year without doing what she is passionate about, without a studio to practice in, her soul a little sad. It was at this moment that Nature Imprint quietly germinated, in a cooperative space that she and a friend founded in order to be able to settle down and finally work. “In the beginning, I was doing sculpture. I liked it, but I wanted to make fossils. So the idea came to me to print grass myself on dirt. » A kind of durable artificial fossils, she makes functional objects with a decorative vocation to adorn our daily lives. Whether it's magnets, serving dishes, picture frames, vases, mugs or candle holders, she is always patenting new products by exploring the various textured and colorful processes that inspire her.

The peeled process

Armed with discipline, the ceramist loves the journey when strewn with learning. Geneviève likes to revisit her "failures", or what worked less well, to understand and improve them. That's how, over the years, she has been able to adapt what she does to what people need.

It's not surprising that she has the patience to flatten the clay using a slab, to smooth it and let it rest, to then go and pick her plants which she stamps by compressing them with a kind of huge rolling pin. And that's not all: then comes the time for cutting (made using the templates she makes), finishing, firing, colors and a second and final firing. All the same !

It vibrates with the contrast of the blue on the clay, with the tone on tone of the red on it, then with the green, the natural color that is inscribed there. His favorite plants are goldenrod, wild carrot, staghorn, parsnip, ash, clover, ginkgo and shore vine.

Needless to mention that it was a bit complex one day to meet a growing demand in the middle of winter. The seasonal realities here come with certain constraints, of course, but who says constraint also says creativity! She has therefore designed ceramic tiles in which she pours latex which takes the shape of the plant having previously left its mark. Rather clever!

Where is she hiding?

The computer is his pet peeve. But she works very hard to expand the online offer of what she does, because she herself admits that she has not been in a store for a long time. You can still find it in store at Femme Mécanique Design and Tad-dah! . For Ottawa folks, you can find his creations at Maker House Co .

According to her, the fact remains that the best way to reach her, in normal times, is at Pop Up events, where artisans from the Montreal area gather in the form of an impromptu market to share their little wonders made with their skilled hands.

Brief…

Geneviève Gallant is also eating pepper and chili popcorn from POPS ART while drinking a delicious masala chai in a cooperative space, where you can see the works of other ceramists/potters.

She dreams of one day not meeting Prince Charming, but someone with whom she could share all her beautiful ideas and the time she devotes to them. Its locomotive wanting to do everything itself might be changing. Could it be the thirties? In any case, she is in her prime and what she creates too.

Revisited by Ariane Lessard in January 2021

Cover: Gabrielle St-Pierre