What is a pottery club to do when there’s a pandemic going on? TriCity Potters usually meet in Port Moody Arts Centre one evening a month from September to June. Clearly, gathering a group of twenty or more for a presentation in a class room is a bad idea. So for at least this first meeting of the academic year I was nudged into inviting the members to meet in my garden, on a Saturday afternoon rather than in an evening.

It was so good to see my pottery friends again yesterday. A good number showed up even though there were showers forecast. The rain had cleared some of the dreadful smoke we’ve experienced for the last week or so. The smoke has been blowing north from horrendous forest fires in California, Oregon and Washington states.

We sat ourselves the two metres apart, wore masks and some brought their own drink. Sadly I couldn’t offer tea, coffee or cookies. It was different.. with masks you can’t see expressions, speak clearly or even hear well. I know, most people have been learning how to work and live with masks for months now, but we seniors really only wear them for grocery shopping.

We needed to decide how to have a club/guild in these difficult times, and decided to ‘meet’ via Zoom, including conducting our AGM in October. The board will select suitable pottery videos, we’ll watch together and then have a chance to discuss the video and anything else ceramic-related with each other. For the time being and until we can meet inside as a group this will have to do. Grace suggested a mug-making fundraiser with the Arts Centre (I need to talk to you Janice).

Our postponed group soda firing at Shadbolt, for 14 members, has been re-scheduled for early October. Sharon Reay brought along some pre-packaged wadding from tech Jay MacLennan so that as many of us as possible can spray, bisque, glaze and wad our ware ahead of time. We are invited to pack up the allowed square footage of pots and leave the box at the kiln. The kiln will be loaded and fired without us, for safety, and we’ll be helping to unload and clean shelves in very small groups. It will be a less sociable event but again, given the pandemic, it’s wonderful to have firings at all. I have some packets of wadding here for anybody else who is in the soda group. I shall be doing a bisque firing with my small load at the end of September so bring your pots here for that if you don’t have access to a kiln.

Our president Ronald Boersen will be leaving for New Zealand as soon as borders open again. For the time being his husband is already teaching remotely at the University of Auckland. We shall miss Ronald’s enthusiasm and friendship. If you feel you have time to help this group we are encouraging local potters, of any experience level, to join the board for the once-a-month planning and social gatherings to keep the club going. Please consider taking a turn at helping the ceramics community locally.

https://tricitypotters.ca/wp/

After the serious conversation Ronald set up two tables for us to display any work we wanted to show each other. I have a photo of each one of us who did this. Ronald has lots of work to sell before he leaves so invites people to visit his rural home/studio just near Minnekhada in Port Coquitlam.

Thank you to the members who sent their apologies for not being able to join us. The weather wasn’t encouraging. But I think we all agreed that it was a long-awaited treat to spend a couple of hours with like-minded clay folks once again.

At the end of August I had an exciting phone call from Ontario. Brian Barnum Cooke and Jonathon Bancroft Snell of Jonathon’s Gallery in London, Ontario spoke to me at length and the upshot is that I am invited to send a selection of my work to the gallery for early October. They are delighted with my colourful jugbirds and jolly plates, as well as the quieter soda and salt-fired stoneware pieces. So I’m to send some of each to be displayed in cases for a few weeks, as a way of introducing me and my work. Thereafter they will carry whatever I can send to them. Check the link. I have never had the chance to visit the gallery but know other potters who have their work there and am now delighted to join some fine artists.

https://www.jonathons.ca/about.html

It’s been so good to have a reason to be in my studio. Throwing, assembling, painting, glazing and firing are wonderful ways of avoiding the news, so right away I threw a group of jugbirds, finished a number of plates and the kiln was filled by including work by our three grandsons. This evening I peeked into the final firing and all looks well. The pots are still rather warm so I shall unload the kiln tomorrow and I have Alan all ready to take some good photos for me. Check the next blog for those!