On the very day that we arrived home from England I was notified that an extra Soda Firing Workshop had been arranged at Shadbolt Centre because there were so many people on the waiting list. Of course I signed up there and then. But it meant that I needed to make my two cubic feet of ware between then, late September, and now. In the…
Some months ago retired Langara College ceramics instructor Don Hutchinson phoned to invite me to give a workshop to Semiahmoo Potters in South Surrey. Since retirement Don has been active with this group of potters and he explained to me that he thought I could talk to them about earthenware, the making of silly birds and the use of colourful slips. These are all things…
Remind me not to plan a trip to Cambridge on a Monday! On the last Monday of our European holiday Al and I lumped my pots from South London onto the train to Cambridge to keep an appointment with Jeremy Waller of Primavera Gallery. Trouble is, the Fitzwilliam Museum, the Cambridge Archaeology Museum and Kettle's Yard Gallery are all closed on a Monday. …
After the last gathering of 'Raiders' (Vancouver artists) here in my studio on August 22nd I could see that their painted plates would fill my kiln for the glaze firing at least twice. Some pieces needed to be bisque-fired one more time to burn off wax applied to resist underglaze so that took up some room. But my top priority for the first firing…
I fired my kiln with a small load recently as I wanted to have all the work from the most recent 'Raid' fired before the group is here again this week. It also gave me a chance to do further tests of the new Mayco commercial glaze on my own red earthenware work. Just one of Pierre Coupey's large round platters didn't make it into…