Alan travelled up to Whistler last Wednesday with the Carlsons to attend the Canadian Archaeology Association’s annual conference. I drove up to join him on Friday. More about Whistler soon.

But on the two days of lovely Spring sunshine here I actually spent lots of time in my studio, preparing plates for another plate-painting ‘raid’ yesterday and assembling two largish new birds.

I had wanted to make sure that I had some taller pieces to put on the top shelf of our next salt firing in July before I clean up my wheel and go back to throwing with red earthenware. The idea for these two  probably came from some photos of Peruvian bird pots my friend Gitte sent me. They have feet, something I’ve generally only indicated on my work. So these two pieces are simply me exploring options for clay feet – two, with the tail for balance.

The first one seemed complete without being made into a jug.

The other one has a large bill which may lead him to being a puffin jug. The thrown pieces intended to form neck and top rim wind up giving this guy quite a character. I took the handle/tail from the back of his head and I like its curve.

I think the best part of working with these thrown parts to create a jug is the little giggle I get when I’m done!

With these two silly birds and four more that I threw while the raiders were here I now have more than my one-third of the salt kiln space ready. I hope to get these all sprayed with blue, ‘red’ and ‘yellow’ slip mixtures and a sploosh of titanium oxide for green, before filling the bisque kiln.