How can we be so far into January? I had planned to get a kiln load of earthenware pieces, including some more plates for Raiders made by now. At this point I have some jugbirds and yunomis waiting to be painted and I’ve thrown and assembled two special Rhytons. The latter just need to dry now and the plan is for Eric to paint them when they are bisqued.

My Raiders are hoping to have another day out here soon so I should get some more plates made this week. After that I shall switch my work space over to stoneware and see how many extra special pieces I can made for an upcoming soda firing. Can’t wait! Another Rhyton, a groovy carved vase and/or lidded pot, more jugbirds, mugs … ?

At the end of 2018 I knew there would be another ‘nine best’ images showing up on Instagram. Somehow their system figures out which of my Instagram posts were ‘liked’ most during the year so here is their calculation. It’s amusing to see that my soda pots appear most, but there are some early Spring croci, a wandering racoon, Raiders’ plates and some marvellous maiolica handrails, photographed in Sevilla during our Spain and Portugal trip in September.

My first Rhyton was an experiment, encouraged by Eric’s suggestion that we revisit the extraordinary vessel forms we made some 25 years ago, for the “Attic Project”. We didn’t make a rhyton and now we’re finding that there are some extraordinary animal and human forms depicted in these bottomless drinking vessels. So my first was simply one of my wheel thrown birds. Eric gave me some further drawings of how the idea could evolve. I don’t mind throwing and altering a few and he’ll have a marvellous time painting them with underglazes however he likes. Knowing the considered and meticulous designs he applies to his plates, and the outrageous colours, I am content to let him play with them. But I shall also make some of my own – hence the soda ones, and then I hope to make some earthenware ones too, and paint them in my way, with coloured slips.

Son Stephen designed a good stand for the first one. It means that the piece can be seen from the side. When shown upside down it’s hard to understand the animal shape so museum examples are displayed on a special stand. Hah, watch out Steve!

Here are the two recent Rhytons with Eric’s drawing and then my interpretation. The Beastly Bird one will hold an awful lot of wine!

I’m delighted that Pileated Woodpeckers have returned to my suet. I didn’t dare put it out until after the bears were supposedly hibernating but now that we are having a mild Winter (fingers crossed) I’ll have to watch out. But seeing so many Northern Flickers, crows, chickadees and Downy Woodpeckers at said suet is such a treat.

I’ll finish this slightly catch-up blog by including some photos of incredible late afternoon sunlight over the Alouette River last Sunday. The local mountains were so clear under an unusually cloudless sky and the river made for some great reflections. We had just attended a show at ACT art gallery in Maple Ridge and grabbed the chance for a short walk along the dike alongside Alouette River in Pitt Meadows, near where our kids live. ‘Soundscape/Landscape’ is a fine show of intricate drawings by Spirit Wrestler co-owner Gary Wyatt and an intriguing sound machine by Jay Bundy Johnson. This is another show well worth the drive out fromVancouver. Like the current show at Port Moody Arts Centre ‘Breathing Space’ (see yesterday’s blog) the Maple Ridge show is very much about British Columbia’s verdant rain forest. Gary has also made detailed drawings of the Saskatchewan landscape around Moose Jaw and Jay’s machine evokes ‘its own peculiar landscape’.