Last Fall I took myself for a little walk behind Port Moody’s Rec Centre to Noon’s Creek. Salmon return from the ocean every year, swimming all the way past Vancouver and many miles inland to the end of Burrard Inlet where they fight their way up Noon’s Creek. For a long time now volunteers have enhanced the gravel beds and put in ‘ladders’ to help the tired salmon travel upstream to lay their eggs. The Salmon Hatchery has become a popular attraction for urban walkers, especially in the Fall when it’s easy to see the huge fish struggling to their end.
The stream-keepers have established a pond where the young salmon mature until they are big enough to make their way back to the ocean, I gather some three years hence. Eagles and herons can often be seen gorging on the dead adult salmon and of course would love to feast on the tasty young. So the pond has netting stretched over it to keep the hungry marauders away. I admired the fallen Maple leaves and their black shadows on the water below and the reflection of towering Cottonwood trees beside the pond so took a photo.
I remembered this when it came time to make a contribution to TriCity Potter’s feature wall in our upcoming show. On the whole members are invited to bring in their best work, with no criterion for a theme. We are ‘celebrating our ten years’. But it was decided that we will devote one wall to Port Moody’s natural environment and I now see that it will be a fascinating and eclectic arrangement of work, using leaves, fish and birds as inspiration. So my piece is about fish, featuring fallen leaves. For once .. no birds!
The platter is slab-formed, using one of my recent wheel-thrown bisqued forms and my usual red earthenware clay. I added some pierced knobs on the back to take a wire for wall display.
Using my photo as inspiration I applied my coloured slips, then coated the dried slip leaves with latex resist. Then I trailed white underglaze for the netting and finished by removing the latex. It was interesting to work out the process and fun to try out the new underglaze trailer. I made a small plate first to work it all out.
