Crackerjack, West Vancouver
Celia Pickles has invited me to participate in her 'Crackerjack' Crafts Sale Event, to be held at 'The Music Box' in West Vancouver. So that is my current goal. She wants a group of jugbirds to be delivered to the venue on Friday November 11th. The Artists' Reception will be that evening and the show will be open for the following two days. I see that the Circle Craft Christmas Show is that week-end too. Perhaps I could go and check it out on the Friday afternoon rather than drive all the way home to Port Moody, before going back to West Van that evening.
I fired a small batch of jugbirds last week, just an extravagent (electricity-wise) single shelf. But the Airport order was overdue and I had a customer who was anxious to choose a wedding gift. All good, except that the drive out to YVR takes up the whole afternoon. Alan and I had changed the light bulbs in our light box so the latest photos of those jugbirds are better. I try to keep a record of work made.
I have been asked for details of the sizes, prices etc of materials for that project so I will post all that one day soon.
Keith and Celia Rice-Jones
Keith and Celia Rice-Jones of 'Wild Rice' studio were presenters at Wednesday's meeting of TriCity Potters. They gave us a power point presentation telling some of the story of their journey in clay. Members were fascinated to see how the studio and kiln were built on their New Westminster property and how two people whose work is very different work side by side. They use cone 10 clay and almost all the work is fired in reduction in a natural gas fired kiln.
Celia is an accomplished thrower and her functional ware is elegant, totally practical and is enhanced by beautiful glazes. It can be found at their studio showroom and at the Gallery of BC Ceramics where Celia is a long-time gallery volunteer.
Keith, having trained first as a furniture maker, is interested in working with stiff clay. His work is formal sculpture, often referencing Art History. Lately the work has become larger and more rounded, finished with dark, metallic surfaces. He often works on commissioned pieces. Keith is a past president of the BC Potters Guild.
Keith taught Art at the very school we hold our meetings in and he and Celia have been involved in teaching ceramics to school-age children all through their careers. Notably they have coordinated several mural projects with schools and communities in the lower mainland. We were shown photos of the process of organizing these astonishing works which will remain as a testament to creativity for many years. When you visit the Michael J. Fox theatre in Burnaby look for the vast mural there, and Edmonds Community School has a mural of continents and luggage labels to acknowledge the school's multi-cultural population.
Do check their smart website for photos of them, their studio and work. www.wildricestudio.com/
Keith and Celia will be two artists in a four-person show in North Vancouver show. Here is the invition:
As Keith writes:
Whaler’s Moon Mask
The other day Al went to Horseshoe Bay to meet up with artist Patrick Amos. Pat had made a Whaler's Moon Mask for him. It is a fine addition to our collection of North-West Coast artwork and particularly special to Alan. He's spent almost of his professional life as an archaeologist on digs in Nuu-chah-nulth territory, either in Port Alberni, Barkley Sound or off Ucluelet harbour. I will add his description of this mask.
"Whaler's Moon" mask by Nuu-chah-nulth artist Patrick Amos 2011.
The main figure, the face representing the moon, is the whaler (the Nuu-chah-nulth were the only Northwest Coast First Nation to actively hunt whales). Above the human whaler is Thunderbird, the whaler of the supernatural realm. The Thunderbird hunts whales by hurling the lightning serpent, which serves as his harpoon (so lightning and thunder from his wings crashing indicate when the Thunderbird is whaling). Lightning Serpents can be seen on each side of the whaler's face. At the bottom is a whaling scene showing two whalers in their canoe, a harpooned humpback whale, and the floats and line joining them.
Interesting additions to the carved cedar are a cedar-bark rope surrounding the piece, copper knees and blue trade-bead eyes on the thunderbird, deer-hide whiskers on the moon-man, hide for the bladder floats and lots of abalone inserts. Alan's very happy with his new acquisition!
Cheerful colours!
I've kept two larger jugbirds here for now. One is really Christmassy and the other is shades of turquoise. Now I must get serious about making some ordered for YVR and designing a large bird mug for a carpenter in partial payment for work here.
Good photos of new work
Some people use their jugbirds for milk and have asked me to make a sugar container to match. My recent batch of work included jugbirds, each of which has a sugarpot painted to coordinate with whatever bird it is.
Alan tried out our new photo lightbox for these photos. The depth of field is good but now we must remember to turn off the ceiling fluorescent lights in the kiln shed. You can see them in some of the images. Otherwise, what do you think of the photos?
I delivered the first three jugbird and sugarpot sets to the Gallery of BC Ceramics, and some small vases. 
These I did just for fun. The flattened sides are inspired by a temmoku-glazed one I own, made by Richard Batterham. I made two at Medalta last year so they're salty. The ones from this September are decorated with slip patterns in my usual earthenware.
To Circle Craft I delivered another three jugbird and sugarpot sets, a single Flicker jugbird and two salt-glazed jugbirds from the Shadbolt Centre firing in the summer.
