On Sunday ten members of TriCity Potters were finally able to go to Shadbolt Centre to collect our pots from last week’s soda firing. As has become the arrangement now, in the time of Covid, we were invited to bring our two cubic feet of ware on the previous Monday but were not allowed to help load, fire or unload. Several participants used the Centre’s flashing slips, glazes and wadding, working in very small groups, outside, under a tent shelter next to the kiln.

Nobody opted to help with the soda inserting on Wednesday. It is intended as a workshop but either members felt they should stay away or, as in my case, trusted the technicians to get it right! The three days of waiting for the kiln to cool seem to go on forever.

I was scheduled to pick up my pots on Sunday afternoon so wasn’t there to see the kiln door opening or take a good look at everybody’s results. That’s always a good time to learn more about how flashing slips, glazes and different shapes react to the flames and soda. So I asked Kay Bonathon, who has been our organizer for this firing and who was our contact with the Shadbolt team, if she’d take some photos for us all.

Here then are her photos of the front and back shelves just before the techs took everything out. Kay was there to help them to recognise who’d made what so that the pots could be placed in groups, one table per person. That way members could arrive and pack up their work quickly before donning safety masks and eye protection to tackle the shelf scraping that we must all do.

Now I’ll add Kay’s photos of each person’s work and endeavour to add the correct name to each photo. There are three photos of Eliza Wang’s practiced and charming bird images, three of Sharon Reay’s whimsical ware and one each of everybody else’s work.

I didn’t take a photo of my work when I was there so I have included a random shot of my pots, taken after I got home. Instead I chatted with the last folks there, Clive Tucker and Sue Griese, and technician Tony as we packed up our efforts. That short time to reconnect with fellow potters and discuss our results was so good.

It was a gloriously sunny day so afterwards I strolled down Deer Lake Avenue to admire the enormous Heronry (just across from Burnaby City Hall) and I was joined by Clive doing the same thing. The manicured garden surrounding Burnaby Art Gallery was also worth a visit. I took many photos.

TriCity Potters have our monthly meeting via Zoom on Wednesday evening and I hope to get this out before then so that we can discuss the workshop with other members. I shall enjoy watching a video on Walter Keeler as well.

In my next blog I’ll show more photos of my own results from this good soda firing.