My pots for Wednesday’s salt firing are all wadded and packed into boxes ready for the drive out to Abbotsford tomorrow to load the kiln with Dave Dobie and Herman Venema. Nora Vaillant drove out here today with her mother Judy (who is holidaying in Vancouver from her home in hot Arizona) to leave her pieces for the firing. This will save her one of the drives out to the valley.

I spent the afternoon rolling half-pound burritos of rock salt in newspaper. There are more than 80 ready to go so that’s over 40 lbs of salt. We’ll see how much we use.

We plan to fire the salt kiln on Wednesday, on what looks like a very hot day. And then we’ll wait until the weekend to see results. There’ll be so much to learn from the pieces we each will have contributed, and our choices of slips and glazes. Can’t wait!

Meanwhile I wanted to post some good photos of the two pots we bought at Tam Irving’s studio last week.

Our dining-room sideboard now has enough on it! Tam’s sculptural piece has joined our strong Walter Keeler jug form with the yummy orange peel surface and our recent Wayne Ngan vase. Walter and Tam have been really influential potters to me.

We have planned a Vancouver Island holiday later this Summer, including a couple of nights on Hornby Island so we’ll take the chance to visit Wayne Ngan there, and will look for Heinz Laffin too. Maybe we’ll see Gailan Ngan and Rachelle Chinnery at the local market, and I hope there will be a chance to stop in at Gordon Hutchens’ studio on Denman Island en route.