Literature
Emily Carr, “The Emily Carr Collection: Four Complete and Unabridged Canadian Classics”, Toronto, 2002, pages 444‒45
Klee Wyck, or "Laughing One", was the name given to Emily Carr by the First Nations members of the Nuu-chah-nulth. It was the title Carr used for her autobiography and the name she used to sign much of her pottery from this period. Inspired by Indigenous iconography of the West Coast, Carr produced hooked rugs and later pottery for the tourist trade from her home in Victoria.
After the boom of Victoria came the slump. Carr's family experienced some hardship with the rising taxes and her father sold off much of his land in lots. Each daughter kept a lot and Carr used hers to build a four-suite apartment, which she rented out. However, with the advent of World War I came a slump in the rental market and Carr needed to augment her income with other sources. She kept hens, rabbits, and sold small fruit and pottery. In characteristically colourful language, Carr described her introduction to pottery making, "with the help of a chimney sweep I built a brick kiln in my back yard, firing my own pots. The kiln was a crude thing, no drafts, no dampers, no thermometer - one door for all purposes...Firing my kiln was an ordeal. I stoked overnight, lighting my fire well before day-break so that nosy neighbours would not rush an alarm to the fire department when the black smoke of the first heavy fire belched from the chimney. The fire had to be built up gradually. The flames ran direct among the pots, sudden heat cracked the clay. First I put in a mere handful of light sticks, the clay blackened with smoke. As the heat became stronger the flames licked the black off. Slowly, slowly the clay reddened passing from red hot to white of an awful transparency, clear as liquid. The objects stood up holding their shapes with terrifying, illuminated ferocity. A firing took from twelve to fourteen hours; every moment of it was agony, suspense, sweat. The small kiln room grew stifling, my bones shook, anticipating a visit from the police, fire chief, or insurance man. The roof caught fire. The floor caught fire. I kept the hose attached to the garden tap and the roof of the kiln-shed soaked. The kiln had to cool for twenty-four hours before I could handle the new-fired clay".
