Panta Rei Design about page

Louise Bouchard founded Panta Rei Design to share her creations. The name itself, coined from a phrase by the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, celebrates change as the only real constant. Just like the sand on a beach is never the same twice, for it shifts and moves with each passing wave; neither are the stars in the sky, nor the people we meet, each altered by the day's experiences and the passing of time. This also couldn’t be more true of pottery and ceramics; dug out of the earth in its raw and organic form as clay, kneaded and shaped by the potter, coated with the raw elements of the glaze, and fired to extreme temperatures in the kiln to metamorphosize into something completely different.

Louise has always been very drawn to her visual and creative side. She has explored different avenues of creativity including painting, drawing, sculpting, carving in wood and stone, and metalwork and fabrication. A few years ago, Louise started to discover the potential and incredible variety of form, function and style of working with clay.

For the most part, Louise is self taught and inspired by the world around her, though she has also attended Victoria Arts College to gain a more formal understanding of form and composition. Over the past several years, she has participated in various ceramics workshops to gain more knowledge of the technical aspects of hand-building and glazes, use of the wheel, and firings.

Louise draws her inspiration from nature and loves to imbue her work with texture. Even though she creates a lot of the functional pieces on the wheel, her passion lies in hand building, carving, and sculpture. Her freeform platters and centre pieces tend to be organic in shape, often reflecting forms and attributes normally found in nature, both on land and the sea. They emit a sense of energy and movement, and some even look like motion frozen in time.

Currently, Louise is mostly working from her home studio, which opens into a backyard that is the source for a lot of inspiration. She has spent the past several months working, testing and documenting a couple of new glazes that she just recently perfected specifically for her “Raw Earth” collection, drawing out the metallic qualities and capturing the raw essence of creation.

Visitors are welcome and studio visits can be arranged ahead of time. If you are looking for something specific it's best to contact well in advance to ensure your piece is available, though there is usually a good selection of work that is available for both, viewing and sale. Louise is also on hand to chat, answer questions, and share insights and inspiration. One of the additional draws during the summer months is the magical water garden that surrounds the studio and patio; a waterfall feeds an extra large pond that hosts various water plants and provides a year-round home to many fish. The garden was selected as a finalist for the 2015 Victoria Water Garden Tour and featured as the cover image on the posters.

A few pictures from the backyard oasis...