Opening the Shadbolt kiln
On Monday afternoon we gathered to open the salt/soda firing from last Friday. With a hard brick kiln the pots were still somewhat warm but fine to take out. What were our feelings about the results? Linda Doherty herself says she's always disappointed at the opening of a kiln and that she prefers the firing. Having participated in the firing I was prepared for what we found. These first photos show three of my pieces which are what I hoped for. But with a tight pack, the use of soda, wood and salt (4lbs?) there were some that were good, some that would do and to my mind, quite a few that will need to be refired. Other participants opted to have some of theirs refired immediately in a cone 10 reduction gas firing. That will certainly smooth them out but I fear any orange peel will disappear.
I brought my 15 pots home and studied them the next day. The two refires from previous salt-firings were just fine, and useful now. The vase and two jugbirds shown here are OK and do show the variety of colours possible in a salt firing. Two mugs will be useable. So eight others, a teapot, 3 vases, 2 mugs and 2 jugbirds will have to wait for another salt firing. I'm sure they will wind up just fine eventually. Refiring proves to be a great option - I'll just have to wait.
I did enjoy the comaraderie of being part of a group firing again so really, Linda and Jay, my comments aren't meant to sound as if I'm unhappy. As we chatted after the unloading we agreed that more salt would have been good. I personally would rather not have wood introduced as it does make the overall look of the work more brown. I think salt colours are brighter with less reduction. And probably, and unpopularly I think that fewer pots would allow for better circulation of the salt vapour.
I'd welcome any comments, please. 
Other Shadbolt Centre Art & salt/soda firing
Other art on display in and around the Shadbolt Centre: a painting by Joe Average, a ceramic mural by Bob Kingsmill, Coast Salish carved monoliths and Keith Rice-Jones' ceramic collaboration 'Past, Present and Future'. I've just posted a close-up of a section of the 'Future' column. 
There is a new display installed on the outside of Mather Building which houses the Ceramics Department. It features the work of current instructors and some visiting ceramic artists.
I also wandered up to the lovely Burnaby Art Gallery and was pleased to catch the two-floor showing of drawings by Falkland artist Ann Kipling, "The Solitudes of Place". Photography is not allowed there and anyway I doubt whether I could have captured the delicacy of her unique drawing style.
Later in the afternoon the soda kiln was all loaded and one photo shows the carefully stacked contents with draw-rings and cones all ready for overnight candling and firing on Friday.
On Friday we participants were invited to attend the last few hours of the firing - 6.30pm to almost midnight - to help with introduction of salt and soda. There was a big difference between the top and the bottom so one of the 4 burners was turned off at the back and instead, to keep the overall temperature rising the solution is to keep feeding with narrow kindling in a peep hole. This only happens after about cone 8 so I don't think there will be too much body reduction. But I am interested to see whether there is a browner look to the work, and also whether the tight pack will allow for overall salt effects. Now we wait until Monday afternoon.
Jack Shadbolt paintings
The Shadbolt Arts Centre is named after Jack and Doris Shadbolt who were Burnaby residents. Jack is one of BC's most well-known and admired painters and Doris was an Art writer and curator. To remind us of their importance in their community a photo of them is displayed in the foyer and throughout the entrance there are some spectacular Jack Shadbolt paintings. On Thursday I chose to record some of them for my blog. At this point I don't have the titles. 
Outdoor art at Deer Lake Park, Burnaby
I spent Thursday over at Shadbolt Centre for the Arts in Burnaby as part of a team loading the soda/salt part of the Ombu wood kiln there. It was nice to spend the day catching up with potters, most of whom I've known for quite a few years. Jay MacLennan, technician there, did almost all of the actual loading - bending his tall frame into the kiln entrance to carefully squeeze practically every piece in. About 9 of us are sharing this firing, so we each have maybe 15 pots in there.
During a lull in the loading and chopping of kindling I took myself off for a walk down to Deer Lake where I was told the water lilies are just opening. I took some photos of growing things in the beautiful grounds of the park.
In the Arts Council Gallery preparations were underway for the opening of a show that evening: "...and we call it home", Juan Contreras. On the outside wall is a new mural.
In my next blog I'll post some photos of art inside Shadbolt Centre.
Venice
I've finally found time to compile a third album of our tour in Italy in May. This slideshow is of fabulous Venice!
https://picasaweb.google.com/jugbird/Italy3Venice
Granville Island
Yesterday was my day to deliver pots. Even though it was raining really hard I drove to the airport first. Normally I park near a Skytrain station and use transit to get to YVR but this time I needed my car to get on to Granville Island as well. I'm glad to have the airport supplied again - they've waited too long! These heavy suitcases were lying unclaimed in US Departures..
On Granville Island I was so pleased to meet up with Margaret Hsu in the Gallery of BC Ceramics. We met in 1991 in a 2nd year Ceramics class (my first of three years there) at ECCAD. Margaret went on to specialize in making ceramic coke bottles entwined with Chinese dragons - East meets West. She was born in Taiwan, attended High School and Art School in Vancouver and now lives in Carmel, Indiana. Luckily for me she was holidaying in Vancouver with her daughter, staying with her sister. We ate lunch in Railspur Alley. Sadly for us Margaret is working on her other passion, web design, rather than ceramics for now. 
I gave the enthusiastic staff at the Gallery of BC Ceramics some of the new salt jugbirds and some salt and some terra sig. mugs.
On my way over to the market I stopped in at the Charles H. Scott gallery in ECUAD and enjoyed the current show 'Miscreants and Reprobates' Myfanwy MacLeod and William Hogarth. Myfanwy's large drawings and what must be a computer-generated sculpture of one of Hogarth's shady characters are set amongst big etchings of Hogarth's well-known images - not Rake's Progress, but 'Prentice's Progress. The message is to be a hard-working, loyal apprentice and you'll become Lord Mayor of London, if not you'll wind up dead. A similar fate awaits a woman of questionable virtue. It's always fun to see these historic etchings.
Further along Johnson Street I found the 'Revision 2011' show of sculptures made from recycled materials set up around Creekhouse. Bill Thompson (who has more than once won the decorated garbage can contest on Granville Island) mentioned the show on facebook. I'm so pleased I found it - I really enjoy outrageous sculptures made from unlikely objects, especially Bill's work. It must be my desire to recycle as much as I can. Here are some pieces that I could photograph. Some were behind wire mesh for safety. I believe the show will be there for some weeks so do take a look.
I didn't make a note of all the artists. If I am sent the names I will add them to this later.
Finally I took some new jugbirds into Circle Craft. The whole shop and gallery have been changed around and it all looks very elegant, ready for all the tourists there this summer. In the new gallery area I enjoyed seeing 'Material Bloom' which features the work of woodworker Peter Pierobon and jeweller Barbara Cohen.
New pots today!
By noon the kiln was cool enough for me to start taking the latest jugbirds out. So now I need to get them listed and packed up for delivery to YVR Crafthouse, Circle Craft and Gallery of BC Ceramics tomorrow. I'll include some of the new salt-fired jugbirds too, from Vincent Massey's kiln.
The wordpress system reverses the order of my photos - so the new earthenware pots are shown further down the page.
A little incentive to see who's reading. There's a free salt-glazed tumbler, you pick up, for the first comment on today's post!
Making those Iznik tiles, in Iznik, Turkey now
This 3-minute video gives a good explanation of the making of those marvellous Turkish Iznik tiles.
http://www.coolhunting.com/design/iznik-tiles.php
Here is a photo of a tiled wall in a mosque in Istanbul.
‘Three Day Road’ by Joseph Boyden
There's been a gap in my blog writing while Al and I try to recover from a nasty Summer flu. What a waste of time! Starting with 5 days of a fairly high temperature it's now been over two weeks. I find myself very tired. But I do think we're getting better. Yesterday I shopped for groceries and then spent a couple of hours cutting off finished California poppies - and then slept for about 10 hours!
But today I finished terra sigging the bases of all my earthenware pieces, sprayed blue and red slips and titanium dioxide on 6 stoneware pieces ready for salt firing and have loaded the kiln. The bisque firing will go overnight. I must fire my kiln 2/3 full because Soly, the buyer for YVR Crafthouse phoned me again to ask if I'm home from Italy yet. AND she wants 12 not 8. I'll get these 8 to her asap. Plus there's a large special jugbird which is intended as a wedding present - wedding was last week.. I'll try to make more earthenware jbs for the airport and also about 10 more stoneware pieces for the soda/salt firing I've registered for at Shadbolt Centre July 21-25. My resolution to pace myself so I don't feel pressured will have to be ignored for a while. Damn the flu!
While I was not able to pot or garden I picked up the book that I was sent from Medalta; a gift for being a 'friend of Medalta'. It is Joseph Boyden's 'Three Day Road'. I have no reason to mention it here, on a blog intended for potters, but I enjoyed it so much that I think it's worth sharing. I had thought that a tale of two young Native Canadian soldiers shipped off to fight in the trenches of World War I would be harrowing and it was. But right from the start I wanted to see what would happen to them, from their Residential School experiences away from their traditional trapline territory on James Bay, to their training in Ontario, their voyage across the Atlantic and then two horrific years in France. We are taken back to Northern Canada and see life for the aunt who is left to trap alone and join her as she meets the train bringing one of the boys home again. This taught me more than I thought I'd ever want to know about that awful conflict and it made me so proud of the expert snipers they turned out to be.
Joseph Boyden was interviewed on CBC Radio this afternoon. He is a Metis writer and is one of a group of writers who've been asked to write about other famous Canadians. His book in the series is a history of two important Metis, Gabriel Dumont and Louis Riel. My mother grew up in the part of Saskatchewan where the 1885 'Rebellion' took place so I have a good reason to pick up that book too.