On Saturday March 23rd I accompanied fellow potters Carlene, Kay and Eliza for the 1 1/4 hour drive out to Chilliwack for the opening of Fraser Valley Potters Guild’s annual juried show. I haven’t been attending meetings for many years but as a founding member I am honoured to have lifetime membership. Kay invited me to participate this year and I agreed, seeing I had a couple of pieces from a recent soda firing that I considered exhibition-worthy. Mainly I felt it was my duty to take photos of everybody’s work, with the intention of putting together a blog. It turns out that there are many ..read more

Jennifer Woodin is uniquely qualified, not only  to teach ceramics, but to encourage her students to understand futuristic technology related to clay. Her first degree, from California State U in Chico, is in engineering and for several years she worked in the field of mechanical and civil engineering. When studying for her MFA in Oregon she took some pottery classes and switched to ceramics, but with a decidedly engineering focus. http://www.jenniferwoodin.com/bio.html Jen has had a most interesting career so far, combining both fields in the years since. During a residency at the Roya ..read more

Greg installing the show Bohart location A few weeks ago Port Moody curator Gregory Elgstrand contacted me to suggest that he might put together a show of work by the Raiders. Bohart is an arts organisation owned by him and his brother Chris. Greg has just started to use a store-front on Spring street as his gallery. The first show featured a painting by Elizabeth Zvonar, and this second display, ‘Raiders Made’, was installed on the weekend. As his didactic below tells us, from the very many artists who have ‘raided’ my studio, he has chosen to show plates painted by artists with whom he h ..read more

The coastal shoreline is a unique place where land and ocean overlap. When the conditions are right, the persistent and unyielding tidal forces can carve hollows and divots into the bedrock itself. Groupings of these sculptural rock formations are called Tafoni.  from Brent Comber. While holidaying together on a Gulf Island five artist friends realized that they needed to put their work together in a show. They were intrigued by the distinctive Tafoni rock features which can be found on many of the islands of the Salish Sea. These wonderful forms have lent themselves to artwork in the f ..read more

Last year Pulp Fiction Bookshop owner and ceramics collector Chris Brayshaw made a pilgrimage to Wales to meet highly-respected clay artist Charles Bound. Now he has assembled a large number of Bound pieces to form a first show of his work in Canada. It can be seen at CSA Space, upstairs from the bookstore. You need to ask for the key at the store’s front desk. I had a plan to meet Raider Renée Van Halm in Mount Pleasant to deliver her latest plates. Her studio is nearby and she chose to see the show with me. First, Chris had reminded us to admire the huge Charles Bound pot on the store’s ..read more

My most recent cone 05 glaze firing was rather small, but it’s always good to see how the clear glaze alters the colours my visitors have chosen. Each artist has put so much thought into the design and taken great pains with each plate. Here are pieces by Eric Metcalfe, Monique Fouquet, Renée Van Halm, Paul Mathieu and me. Most were painted on our most recent Raid, February 14th. Curator Gregory Elgstrand joined us for a while that morning and learned more about the friendly painting days that are Raids. His small curated show of Raiders’ plates will open later this month, here in Port Moody ..read more

Are you intimidated by colourful underglazes? Some Tricity Potters are happy to make pots in classes and then glaze them but worry about using underglazes. With that in mind we arranged a fun game of cooperation for last Wednesday’s meeting. Members were asked to bring along a bone dry or bisque-fired pot, any underglazes they have and a brush or two. We had lots of extra pots, and I brought along my many jars of Raiders’underglazes. Inspired by the old ‘Exquisite Corpse’ parlour game we split up into groups of four, and three. By giving each person a number, one through four, and then telli ..read more

There’s always more to learn when you toy with atmospheric firing. People ask how it went and the answer is ‘well 80%’, often. That’s good. Overall the colours looked encouraging when we opened the kiln door but my batch seems rather brown. I shall refer to my notes and make suggestions to myself to try a different flashing slip, or apply less etc. Every time I warn myself not to expect uniform orange peel all around a pot in a soda firing. These pots show the results you can expect but I still hope for more colours and less contrast around each piece.  Grooved jar with lid This sphe ..read more

Once again I had the chance to join fellow potters in a firing of the Vault Kiln at Shadbolt Centre for the Arts. Hoping that having my name on their waiting list would earn me a chance, I had thrown some experimental pieces back in November. Lucky me, I was invited to bring my two cubic feet of ware for this firing. The pots are all dated 2023! I like to spray the flashing slips here in my studio so that they can be safely bisqued-fired on, then I apply liner glazes of my own and glue on wadding. So when I am at the kilns I simply need to measure  the work and leave the right amount th ..read more

The last two days have been just perfect! They were my kind of fun. Tuesday saw me joining the team at Shadbolt for unloading the soda kiln. But I will start by telling you about yesterday. Renée and Monique were keen to spend another day here painting plates and we invited Karen to bring Eric out here for a change of scene and an afternoon of drawing. I invited Paul Mathieu to join us too, either hitching a ride with R and M, or with Karen later. He opted for the latter.  Monique & Renee got straight to work. Curator Gregory Elgstrand asked me about hosting a small show of work ..read more