All three of the ‘Raiders’ who were here in early February painted platters which I am sure will be used for Festive Feasts. The platter that was taken in to Vancouver for Eric to paint is also intended to be a special Feast Dish. Yesterday Alan took photos of the finished glazed work and I’m pleased to see that all are suitably shiny, bright and food safe.

As Eric began to paint his rimmed platter with his selection of red, blue, yellow and black on the white ground he noticed the French Tricolor appearing at each end of his design. He thought about the platter’s potential use as a celebratory serving dish, possibly as part of a French feast, and then remembered the splendid Danish film ‘Babette’s Feast’ from 1987. In that tale a fabled French chef escapes bloody revolutionary fighting in Paris and is referred to a remote Jutland religious sect for safety. She agrees to work for nothing and remains there many years. A lottery win enables her to plan a fantastic French feast, with exotic ingredients imported from Paris. I won’t tell you more.. the film is charming, just know that a fantastic Feast is produced and Babette’s true identity is revealed.. but all her winnings are gone. Eric has named his platter ‘Babette’s Feast’ to reference a fine film and the intended use of a presentation platter. During Saturday’s WF Fundraising Gala it will be given to Dr. Shelly Rosenblum of UBC, who was the Chair of the Western Front board and has been most active in the society and in changing its direction.

Here is the Wikipedia link to ‘Babette’s Feast’:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babette%27s_Feast

In a memorable 3-week Summer Ceramics class at ECIAD in 1992, well-known American potter and Leach apprentice, Jeff Oestreich watched this very-much-pottery-related gem of a film with us, his students.

Philippe Raphanel’s two large round platters are much more than dinner plates and will surely be used to present some of his culinary creations. As before, he layered colours of underglaze before applying wax resist. The darker colour painted over all is then resisted in some areas. The results are stunning.

He also asked to take a little oval ‘lunch’ plate home, to spend more focussed time drawing with a ceramic pencil. He had coated it with a warm sepia colour ahead of time. The finished plate is super and I think he’ll want to do more drawing on bisqued clay. He tells me he has bought a new ceramics-suitable pencil for himself from Opus!

Mina Totino chose one of the large round platters again and, as is her wont, made the top side completely different from the underside. So I need to show two photos of that piece. Fun!

Her other piece from that Raid is one of the deeper square dishes, and it also gives the observant user a nice surprise when it’s turned over. Mina isn’t afraid of bright colours!

Michelle Normoyle chose the largest of my rimless oval platters, painted it pink and applied multi-coloured dots. I wonder what she’ll serve on that one? A big green salad perhaps. Her other two pieces go together, and make a charming serving set.

Next blog, I’ll show a couple of my plates and the latest jugbirds.