After a rather long gap, due mainly to my having a lingering viral throat something-or-other, we finally had three ‘Raiders’ here on Thursday. It was so good to spend the day catching up with artist friends. Mina Totino had three square plates to work on, Philippe Raphanel requested some large platters and new guest, Mina’s friend Michelle Normoyle chose to paint some oval plates and a couple of little triangular dishes. 

Here are two photos to show you how much work the three got done in a fairly long day. Philippe had a careful plan to continue his previous experiments with wax-resist over colours and then a final wash of something different at the end – so the group needed to wait for him to finish. No problem, there were treats from Bâtard Bakery to have with our tea. And as usual there was an abundance of home-made salad, veggies, cheese and bread for lunch. Yummy!

These plates will look so much bolder after the bisque and glaze firings.

I’m including a photo of two demo dishes I painted with underglazes on white clay – to show that the colours do need three coats for good coverage (there are only two on these!) and testing glazes.

The next day Al and I took care of our just-4 grandson Caleb for a few hours while his little brothers had their vaccinations. I had to include this photo showing Caleb’s delight at his Grandma making a mess on the wheel. So far he prefers to poke a solid lump of clay with various pottery tools and stamps and just watch me throwing.