We think it’s been about ten years since Eric Metcalfe started to invite artist friends to join him on trips out to Port Moody for a plate painting day. For some time before that I had been making tea sets, a dinner set, oodles of Greek vessels and then large platters for Eric to paint. His surfaces started out looking like the leopard spots from his Dr Brute persona days in the seventies but gradually the spots became more graphic, and more colourful. He now has a vast series of lunch plates which he uses as gifts.

Over the years some thirty or forty Vancouver-based artists have joined us, with anywhere from two to nine on any one day. Eric invited them so that they could experience the special pleasure of working on a non-flat, rounded shape that can be functional. And my intention is to have folks in the Art community learn about the fun and the idiosyncrasies of working with ceramic materials.

My role nowadays is to roll out slabs of white earthenware clay and form platters and plates on my dozens of wheel-thrown and bisque-fired forms. When tidied up and dried I bisque fire them all so that when my guests arrive they can choose their two or three plates for the day and get to work. I provide a big selection of colourful underglazes and apart from offering some process assistance I have no input on what my visitors put on their plates. As regular readers of my blog know, our day is much enhanced by the lunch and tea-time contributions of food by my guests. We really don’t know why they are ‘Raiders’ except that Eric felt that Alan and I are ‘raided’.. but it’s our pleasure.