Today’s photography session didn’t take long as there were only ten new jugbirds and two ‘Raider’ plates. Most of the birds have been made before but I like to post the photos so that I can keep a record of what I made and when. Thanks Alan. I had two new oval plate forms in the bisque firing as well.

One blue bird is spoken for but the others will fly in to Granville Island early next week. Carita, the Gallery of BC Ceramics manager tells me that the larger Pileated Woodpecker from the members’ ‘Testing, testing, 123’ show will be mailed off to Ottawa asap, and that there are very few other birds left. Already someone wants a regular P Woodpecker so it’s time to get some more started.

But today I made some new red clay tiles and oval plates ready for a clay day on Sunday. My niece Tasha and three of her women friends from Austin, Texas are spending a long weekend in Vancouver and are hoping to have some studio time with me. I’ve also tried out my new platter moulds with F100 white clay as I’m curious to see how the form looks after the clay slabs have shrunk. My guests will be able to experiment with underglazes on bone dry plates or apply my slips on leather-hard pieces. Or perhaps they’ll just want to watch a little wheel-throwing and then try it out for themselves.

The foursome plan to see Stanley Park and possibly Granville Island tomorrow while the weather is forecast to be sunny. Perhaps they’ll rent bikes. Tasha will spend Saturday with us – but best-laid-plans… the Pitt Meadows McMillans all have horrendous colds, so she may only be able to see our Mike. Fingers crossed for colds to disappear in 24 hours!

Marlene brought out two black and white plates that she’d painted at home so they joined my latest glaze firing.