Meet the Maker behind The Liberty Inn

Jacqui Liberty threw herself into the renovation of The Liberty Inn, quite literally. Liberty and her husband, Bruno Roldan, bought the historic Cataract inn – most recently Forks of the Credit Inn – three years ago. Liberty, who founded Soft Fire Ceramics in 2020 in Alton, made each of the five guest rooms’ kitchen backsplashes, shower tiles and bathroom floor tiles – along with the dinnerware in each kitchenette. From these hand-built pieces (over 10,000 tiles!) to wheel-thrown mugs and plates, Liberty’s talent graces most surfaces of the luxury inn, which opened in February 2025.

Liberty invited me to observe how she builds her signature tiles, starting with raw, wet clay. Although most of her work is thrown on the wheel, the tiles require a different process. After using a wire cutter to extract a lump of clay and then weighing it, Liberty begins the process of “wedging” to remove air bubbles from the clay to ensure the same consistency throughout. “There’s a temptation to liken the process to kneading dough, but it’s quite different,” Liberty says, standing with the stained-glass windows of her church-turned-studio as a backdrop. Wedging clearly demands full body pressure, as she stands over the clay and leans into it. Liberty tends to use stoneware clay, but terra cotta and porcelain are also in her rotation.

When Liberty first began making the tiles, she used a rolling pin, which was very labour intensive and hard on the body. Given the quantity required for the inn, she invested in a slab roller, which resembles a giant pasta machine and rolls the clay to an even thickness in seconds. After allowing the slabs to “firm up” for 24 hours, she cuts out the tiles with an X-Acto-knife-like tool and then leaves them on drying racks. 

“It’s a very slow process, because clay needs to be the right moisture level to be handled – you develop a tactile sense as to when it is ready,” Liberty says. “It takes two weeks just to get to the bone-dry stage, and then it’s on to the first firing, called the bisque firing.” This is done in the kiln, situated on what was once the altar, a few feet from the organ.

After the bisque firing is complete it’s time for the glaze, and this is where Liberty’s science background shines – she has a master’s degree in public health and started learning pottery 20 years ago as a study break. “I’m very interested in developing my own glazes,” she says, even though she also loves the look of natural clay. “A glaze is basically powdered glass suspended in water. The colour comes from different oxides or commercial Mason stains – blue from cobalt, brown from titanium, and green or grey from copper and chrome.” Liberty credits the glaze courses taken at Alfred University in New York State with developing her knowledge of their chemical composition and bolstering her confidence to create her own.

Liberty applies the glaze to the tile with a glaze brush. “It’s different from a typical paint brush because it needs to soak up a lot of the glaze. You want to really load up the brush with glaze before applying it – otherwise, it will be streaky.” Many of Liberty’s functional pieces, like plates and mugs, are instead dipped in glaze.

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Liberty shares with me her “library of tests,” a small toy crate repurposed from her six-year-old twins. It contains sample pieces reflecting a whole ecosystem of different colours – a catalogue or aide-mémoire of sorts, since all the glazes look like white powder on application and require glaze firing to develop their hue.

“When you open your glaze firing, that’s when you know if you like the piece or not,” says Liberty. “A lot of good pieces can be ruined with a bad glaze.” But of the ones that work, she says every piece becomes her new favourite.

In creating the tiles for the inn, Liberty deviated from her usual neutral earthy colours to experiment with jewel tones, including navy, dark greens and burgundy. “We based the palette on an updated version of historical colours, as the inn dates back to 1855,” she says. “I love those colours in tiles and I’m excited I finally get to experiment with them. It’s harder to do that palette in functional ware because those pieces need to fit into a lot of different spaces and interior design styles.”

Very aware of her surroundings, Liberty gleans inspiration from art, interior design and gardening. “I’m always on the lookout for different colours, patterns and textures, and these find their way into my work,” she says. “I’m also influenced by items I need, like vases because I love gardening. If I find myself wishing I had a specific vase, I’ll figure out how to make it.”

Liberty refers to her notebooks and collection of clippings as her greatest style influence. “When I’m travelling and I see an interesting textile, or a combination of paint colours on a building, I’ll capture it and look back on it later.” Indeed, the family recently embarked on a two-week trip to England to look at other small historic inns for inspiration. 

Liberty has evolved from student to teacher, although she continues to take classes herself. Her studio doubles as a classroom with eight pottery wheels at the ready. And when her pupils are looking for more courses, she refers them to Georgetown’s Credit Valley Artisans pottery guild, where she picked up her love of pottery again in earnest a decade ago. Some of her students are artists in other media, but she has taught an increasing number of nurses and social workers who understand the therapeutic benefit of pottery.

“Pottery is a great thing for both artists and non-artists to do – it’s a discipline that opens your mind and gives you new ideas.”