Pandemic nudge sets wheel in motion for local artist
Story by Roxann Edsall
Photos by Meghan Frondorf
Breathing in the essence of her vision, she throws the clay onto the wheel, carefully aiming for the center. Extending her slim hands, she enfolds the clay as it spins and bends to her will. The clay seems to take on a life of its own as it sways to her touch.
Fingers pinching and pressing, the artist patiently pushes and directs the medium to the perfect form and extension. The duet spins and sways until, finally pleased with the performance, the artist ends the dance. Removing the cup, she sets her delicate partner on the shelf to dry.
Logan Martin resident and potter Virna Settle has done this carefully choreographed dance many times over the past two years and has produced hundreds of pottery pieces, some of which have been commissioned by those who have seen her work.
While she still sells many of her pieces on Facebook, her handiwork has also been featured at Fish Market restaurant in Birmingham. Because of that exposure, she’s recently been asked to provide pieces for Nichols Nook Coffee Shop in Springville.
Settle has learned from one of the best. Her mentor and teacher is internationally-renowned potter, Tena Payne, owner of Leeds-based Earthborn Pottery. Payne’s works may be seen at some of the most famous spots across the country, including the Bellagio Resort and Casino, Caesars Palace, and Peche Restaurant in New Orleans. Birmingham top chef Chris Hastings (Hot and Hot Fish Club) used her serving pieces when he won Food Network’s “Iron Chef America.”
A journey of discovery
Originally from Manila, Philippines, Settle spent quite a few years in the restaurant business herself before discovering her other artistic gifts. She moved to the Birmingham area in 1993 and spent several years running two Birmingham restaurants, La Dolce Vita and Amore Ristorante Italiano with a former partner.
It was at La Dolce Vita that she met Harold, a Birmingham cardiologist, who would later become her husband. He and his first wife were frequent customers before he lost her to pancreatic cancer in 2010.
The two were married at their Cropwell home in the spring of 2012. Three years into their marriage, Virna discovered a talent for art after attending a painting party with friends. “I went to the party and painted a fish,” she says. “I loved it, so I took classes for five years to learn more.”
What she learned, along with her natural talent, brought her success as a painter. Paintings she hasn’t sold hang on her walls or sit in her small art studio. Harold wishes she would spend more time painting, but she has found her greater love in pottery. “I encourage her,” he says. “She’s really good. I love the way she blends her colors.”
Just two years ago, she didn’t know a thing about pottery. Her interest in pottery was a blessing that came out of the pandemic. In the spring of 2020, she was visiting with her sister and a friend by video chat when the subject of dinner came up.
A discussion of fish and ways to prepare it led the friend to suggest that Virna get a Palayok, a traditional Philippine clay pot used to steam fish. After that call, she got on her computer and looked up where she could take classes in pottery so she could make her own Palayok. She found those classes nearby at Earthborn Pottery.
Throwing the clay onto the pottery wheel, she says, is not as easy as you may think. “It took more than a year for me to learn to center the clay properly,” admits Settle. “If you don’t get it right in the center, it will wobble, and that’s not good.” It’s the throwing part, she adds, that locked in her love of the craft.
“When you throw the pottery, you can see it come together and be something,” she explains. The process and how the clay transforms is what she loves. From her masonry arch back porch, she doesn’t have to look far for inspiration for her work. The earthy tones and muted blues and greens mimic the expansive lawn that leads out to the waters of Logan Martin Lake. She throws her pottery from that spot, just a few steps from her backyard paradise.
It’s the perfect spot for creating beauty. Ironically, Settle does not like perfection in her work. It’s the rustic imperfection, the asymmetry, that makes a piece right for her. Her pieces are all unique in design and color, true one-of-a-kind art. Her plates have curved and often rippled edges, though not evenly so. The colorations are deep and earthy.
The urge to learn more and different styles of pottery design is driving her to travel more. She’s checked out pottery in North Carolina recently and says she wants to continue to learn more about other styles. European design is an interest, so she hopes to travel there soon.
Meanwhile, she waits on projects at various stages of drying, firing or painting. Pottery is not for the impatient. Smaller pieces can dry in two to four days, but larger pieces, like the commissioned berry bowl on the shelf, can take two weeks to reach the leather-hard stage.
When they reach that stage, the bottoms are trimmed and waxed. Then she paints, waits for it to dry, then fires in her kiln. Then there’s the glaze and another firing. And, she understands that at any stage the piece can break, and she will have to start the process again at the wheel. Embrace the process, the imperfection and the patience. Practicing those steps, Settle hopes one day to see her pottery on the worldwide stage. For now, she is content with the process, at the wheel, one dance at a time.
