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I'm over the moon to bring you this fantastic podcast with Ruth Simonsen, a Norwegian potter. Ruth starts this podcast with a revelation before delving deeper and deeper into her connection with nature, covering topics such as grounding, clay, and the land in her hands. To hear Ruth speak is mesmerizing and meaningful.
Ruth:My grandfather and your grandmum, they were actually fourth cousin. So my father and your mother is the fifth cousin, and you and me, we are sixth cousin.
Estelle:Yes. Which is really thrilling for me. me.
Ruth:My name is Ruth Karin Simonsen, and we are now at Sandnes. Sandnes is a little town nearby Stranger in Norway. And here I have a special work because I'm a potter, but what's special about it is that I'm a seventh generation potter in my family. So my family has been here working as potters since 1842.
Ruth:I'm just trying to work out how many years that is.
Ruth:That's a hundred and seventy years? Yeah, it's almost in in 2042. It will be two hundred years. Yes. But my my as a seven generation back, my great great great great grandfather, he came here in 1822.
Ruth:So I could also say that we started here in 1822. Yes. And then he was an apprentice as a pot as a potter, as a potter who was here already. And he was the second generation. So I could say that I'm in a eighth generation potter row here in Saannes.
Ruth:Yes. And the reason why he the first potter was here is because they started a brick factory here in the late seventeen hundred. Yes. So because of that, other people also came here to get work here. So before there was nothing here.
Ruth:They say there was like, I don't know, 94 houses here when the brick factory was started, so there was not many people living here. We were talking yesterday and you said, something which really, not exactly sent a shiver, but really resonated with something, with thoughts about nature. The nature here in Sannes has been very, very important for the whole city really, because this whole town is built upon clay, which is nature, you know. So the whole society here is actually built upon the history around clay. So here we are in a way very connected to the nature in this town.
Ruth:Were the bricks made of clay? Yes, yes. They are made of clay and the clay here was made during the last ice age here in Saumas. How? How?
Ruth:It's a kind of eruptive material that it has been I don't know quite the word, but it the ice lays on top of the mountain Yeah. And it goes a little bit forward and backwards. And then little small particles get off the mountains and it follows the river down the mountains and it is washed away far away and it's it's landed in salty water mixed with other things like I don't know the word for it. The little the little Shells. Shells, yes, shells and things like that.
Ruth:It's it's mixed with things like that, and it laid here the whole ice age, like 30,000. And when the ice age was finished and the ice was returning, went away, it was very easy to find the clay here. So it was very easy for the people that was coming here and living here to find the clay. They were actually walking on clay, yes. So the whole city here is really built upon clay.
Ruth:Wow. So then they found out because there was so much clay in this area, then they of course should use that and use it as a factory. So here we are in Sannes, we are very grounded. You know, when you take off your shoes and you ground with nature, then you take off your shoes and you go barefooted. You know, you get the kind of grounding.
Ruth:A lot of people do that, it's very popular now. Take off your shoes and you go by the the sea, like in the sand, and you ground with the earth. So you get, like, you know, the magnetics from the earth in your feet. So you actually ground a little bit. But think about all the people living here in St.
Ruth:Ness, we are in a way a little bit grounded every day because we have so much good materials, good clay materials in the ground.
Estelle:Yeah. But this is really honestly fantastic. Yeah, it is fantastic.
Ruth:It's my opinion though, but I think that we are a
Estelle:little bit more grounded here than other places. So this grounding, this concept of the barefoot being in touch with the earth, is that something that you feel?
Ruth:Yeah, I've actually done that. I don't do it every day, but sometimes I actually do it because I follow a lot of, like, podcasts and things like that doing doing biohacking. They are hacking good things for your body. And then one of the thing is to ground with nature, ground with the with the ground, you know, that you you go barefoot and you get the like a kind of radiation from from the ground into your body, And it's actually supposed to do something good with you.
Estelle:Does it?
Ruth:Yeah, I think so. I think so. I see myself as a healthy person, so I think it's doing something good to me. Yeah.
Estelle:I'm sure of it.
Ruth:Yeah?
Estelle:Yeah, I'm sure of it. It's just that I'm so shocked in a really good way by this concept of a collective submission to the grounding process, because it's so it's so humble, isn't it?
Ruth:Yeah, yeah, yes, that you get something from nature itself, right away actually. Yeah, so we should give something back as well. Do people do anything about that? Yeah, yes. We live in Norway.
Ruth:And in Norway, I think that a lot of people, not everyone, but a lot of people here see the quality of nature and see that it does a lot of good things to people. So I think that in this area, we are we take try to take care of our nature. Like like, one thing for instance is that we have a lot of people here that goes trail walking or trail running and things like that. But when you are in nature, of course, you make new paths. But perhaps you shouldn't make so many new paths in the nature.
Ruth:You should go the same path so you don't destroy too much of the ground. And so here they are very good to mark like paths for us to go in the nature, so most people will use the same path and will not destroy so much of the nature outside of the path. So this is one way that human can give back something to nature that we actually don't walk everywhere, but we try to make a good environment, yes, for the nature, even though if we are in the nature walking experience
Estelle:Yes. Good That is a good example. And then I was wondering, I mean, I think we should talk a little bit about your work. Yes. So for example, I've arrived today
Ruth:Mhmm.
Estelle:And you've had a fresh, what is it, fresh out of the kiln.
Ruth:Yeah, it's what they have here, it's some samples of Racku firing. I really love it because it's like a fantastic explosion for me because it's like it happens so fast and you don't you cannot always know the result of it. So it's like it's very exciting to do this, And it's how they in a way did the burning and things like that back in the old days. So it actually takes me a little bit back in time doing things in the old ways. But of course, we do it with a gas stove, so it's not quite like they did it in the old way, but you get a kind of memory of what you did before in the old days.
Ruth:Yeah. So
Estelle:which is your favorite piece?
Ruth:Of this? Yeah. Oh, I I think you describe it? It's beautiful. Yeah.
Ruth:It's a little round ball ball, and it's black because where you don't have the the glaze, it will burn black. And it's it's like twelve, fifteen centimeter diameter. And it's got a beautiful, beautiful red colored copper glaze inside, and it's actually turning a little bit against turquoise. So and it also have have some rounded bows on the outside with the same glaze, so it's got two of them. So it's very nice.
Ruth:It looks like copper, very metallic copper actually, so it looks beautiful. Yeah. It's iridescent. Mhmm.
Estelle:Yeah, it's absolute And the smell was amazing.
Ruth:Yeah, because it actually smells the wood, because when you when you the fire, you have it in the in the oven first, and then you put that put it in wood, like small pieces of wood, and then it starts to burn. So you get a lot of flames, and it burns for a little bit, and then you take the lid the casserole which you have it in, and there's another process that also helps making these beautiful colors. So it's very like burning things and it's kind of explosive. It's very nice. And then after you have it in water, so you use a lot of the elements, you have the flames and you of course have oxygen to make the flames and then you have have have wood, you have the clay which is another element and you have water.
Ruth:So you actually have all the four elements in this process. It's quite fantastic. Yes.
Estelle:It's really mesmerizing listening to you, because what you're saying portrays a really deep affinity with the natural world,
Ruth:Mhmm.
Estelle:And that was, I think you mentioned that yesterday, so you said something that really blew my mind, which was that it was something like you need nature
Ruth:to work. For me as a potter, yes, so I need the elements that's in the nature to be a potter. Now I need clay and I need the water to wash off and do my work, of course. And we need the air to do the firing and things like that. So that's elements that you actually need in the in my, yeah, in my in my work.
Ruth:Yes. But also, I need it because to be a potter, it's a kind of well, you can get your back hurt, you can get sore muscles, you know. So I also use the nature to keep my body healthy and do a lot of exercise in the nature, to actually be being able to do the pottery work because it's hard work. Sometimes I carry like one ton of clay that's come with the with the car here, and then I have carry it into the house, you know? So I need to be fit, I need to be strong, so the nature also helps me to be strong.
Ruth:So and also it's a kind of, you know, the psychological thing about being out in the nature, getting ideas, you see a lot of things in the nature that can give ideas like glazes or patterns and and yeah. You you can and what I say about grounding that you also can can like ground and and connect to nature. And when you are grounded, I think you also have good thoughts and you have positivity around the work you do.
Estelle:Yes. So when you're talking about connecting in that context, are you able to I know it's really hard, yeah, but are you able to describe that connection?
Ruth:You know, I if you think that I'm a seventh generation potter, okay, so I have a very long tradition with me. And this tradition and my forefathers is in a kind of way inside these walls, you know, I have this with me. And the same really with the nature, that you take with you into the pottery workshop in a way. So you have all this in the air around you in a way. Yeah.
Ruth:So this is yeah. You can feel feel it like that. Yeah. Yeah. And and also yeah.
Ruth:Yeah. No. Also No. I I was thinking about what we were also talking about, the the paths that we were walking and things like that. How come we are so close to the nature?
Ruth:Like we were discussing a little bit before that perhaps it's because in Norway, for many generations back, there were no cars, there were you had to walk. And Norway was a very big long country and there were very small towns and people were living very far away from each other. So if they had something to do somewhere else in the country, they actually have to walk, have to use the horse or something, so then they had to wander in the nature to get to another place. So this is I think we have a lot of this in the memory, generation back, like epigenetics, Like if you are far farther way back, did a lot of walking in the nature, then perhaps we have taken it with us in what we call epigenetic, like you if your forefather did something, then you actually in a way can it's not really genetic, but in a way it's in our genes still. So I think I believe in that, I believe in epigenetics that you actually can because your forefather did something, then you actually get it in your blood.
Ruth:So perhaps that is why a lot of Norwegians like the nature that their forefathers in the old days used to walk a lot from one place to another place. So, yeah. Can we this bowl Yes?
Estelle:Yeah. As an example. Yes? I mean, it really is beautiful. Yeah.
Estelle:This is quite a mean question, you know, but are you able to look at it even though you made it and see in it the nature influence, apart from what we've already discussed perhaps Yes. In the
Ruth:I don't know about the design, but I can at least feel it because when I feel this I can feel like the shapes of the mountains. It's like feeling or touching a mountain because it's a little bit I don't know the English word for it but what would you say the surface is called? It's a little bit rough. Yeah, yeah, it's a rough surface, so of course I actually feel the mountain, this ball. Yes.
Ruth:And of course the glazes also, the colors you can see in nature. I could also say it's a kind of what we call in Norway jete gritte. It's when the river when a river makes its way. Perhaps the streams or a stone or something go like this in the Swirl? Yeah, in an area for a long time and actually makes it deeper, deeper, deeper.
Ruth:And this is a kind the ball has this shape in a way. And because it has a little bit turquoise and blue in the glaze, it's actually a little bit water. So, yeah, so of course I can see some of the nature in the products, yes. But I think also it's special about tactile for me, like and this is again about grounding thing, that when I work with clay, I actually just ground every day because I work with clay, because clay is is a kind of natural product from the earth. And when I touch it every day, I think I ground all the time.
Ruth:So or at least when I work with the material clay.
Estelle:That's absolutely fantastic. Thank
Ruth:you, yeah.
Estelle:Yeah, it is absolutely fantastic.
Ruth:Yeah, I'm lucky, I'm very lucky I think to being able to work with the material as clay.
Estelle:It's been really, really deeply moving listening to you.
Ruth:Yeah, thank you.
Estelle:No, thank you so much, it's been really
Ruth:amazing. Yeah, thank you. I think I'm very thankful that you are so interested in what I do, that's
Estelle:it's so important. Yeah, what you're doing is so important. Yeah. Thank you so much, Ruth. Yeah.
Estelle:Subscribe to Nature Talks With Humans for more true stories of people communicating with animals, birds and landscape. Follow me on Instagram at Estelle underscore writer forty four and TikTok at Estelle Phillips. Bye.
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