Yesterday it was time to open my latest glaze kiln and retrieve some ordered pieces - the 8 jugbirds for Crafthouse YVR, a flicker and sugar pots and a wild Green, Blue-Billed Bird Teapot. Other pieces will wait here for the April ArtWalk.

Customers who have enjoyed a blue-billed green jugbird since last year's ArtWalk commissioned me to design a matching bird teapot. I really like the combination of colours so was happy to draw and make one. We'll see whether he's big enough for their needs - I think that when he's filled with tea he's heavy enough. Luckily the odd bill/spout has produced a good pour!

Here is a little photo essay on the process of his manufacture. I threw the body first, then its lid and then a cylinder which I later cut up to form the spout/bill.

Assembling the pieces and then adding a handle/tail, eyes and a 'crest' on the lid is totally absorbing and satisfying. I leave the completed piece under soft plastic to even out the moisture for a day. I then paint it with my coloured slips before allowing it to dry slowly.

A final step before the bisque firing is the application of terra sigillata (very fine red clay slip) to give the base and lid 'seat' a pleasing finish.

After the bisque firing all the work is dipped in a clear glaze and fired again to Cone 04, an earthenware temperature which melts the glaze to a bright glossy food-safe coating.

As a long-time fan of British artist Andy Goldsworthy who installs magical arrangements of stones, ice, leaves and sticks in natural settings I was interested to find out what Chris Mackenzie is making. Like Andy, Chris is a fine photographer and it seems to me that once one has spent years taking photos of the best natural scenes one comes to a point of wanting to introduce surprises. Google Andy Goldsworthy to see images of painstaking arrangements of beautiful colours, often in circles outlining odd holes. These works of art may never be seen by anyone except the artist but the photograph capturing this fleeting gift is what we can see in books.

Chris has been working on Land Art for the last two years after many more in photography. His show, 'Stones, Chestnuts & Snow' in the 3D gallery features large format photos of some delightful arrangements in local forests and by streams. Large rocks on the floor, a video showing waves gently lapping over pebbles towards red chestnuts placed at the high-tide mark and an accompanying sound-track make the little gallery a pleasing introduction to his ideas and one is then intrigued to see the arrangements of sticks on the outside lawn of the Arts Centre. Next Saturday he plans to work publicly again, installing 8 more rectangles of sticks on the island in front of City Hall.

Gallery curator Susan Jessop asked artist Angela Gooliaff to indicate the feelings of an artist confronted with display cases for her work. The resulting ants scurrying inside and outside the cases are a fun surprise! 'Cabinet of Curiosity Series' with Tony Chu.

Time ran out so I shall take a better look at the other two shows at the opening on Thursday - Maegan Elise' 'Goodnight Goodluck' mixed-media drawings based on the earthquake and tsunami in Japan - and the abstract drawings of Rosemary Burden 'Breeding Ground'.

pomoarts.ca

The Opening Reception was a week ago now. I do enjoy the opportunity to hear more about each artist and the ideas and work behind each person's exhibition. After spending time with the 2D work this time I appreciated the mixed-media work by Maegan Elise. She is in third year at ECU and her paintings have already been selected for a show in North Vancouver and one image has been chosen by Translink to appear on a bus or a sky train for the next two years. She is this year's recipient of Port Moody Art Centre's Kwi Am Choi award for emerging artists. He would have enjoyed her work. I found them to be moving and powerful.

The other 2D works, showing on the walls of the Plum Gallery, are abstract drawings by Rosemary Burden. These warrant a careful look. They have a delicate botanical feel and I enjoyed them a lot.

Since I started this blog over a week ago Chris Mackenzie has been in touch. It was a snowy day last Saturday when he completed the second of his Port Moody installations. I'm afraid we merely walked around our neighbourhood and did not drive down to the end of the Inlet to watch him. But he has sent me two photos of the work as it looks today in the snow. Who knows what effect the next few weeks of rain, frost and then Spring will have on his careful arrangement?

I do hope there will be lots more public art in our city, whether it is ephemeral and a passing pleasure  like Chris' sticks and last year's now-fading, but thought-provoking blue trees or more permanent sculpture, painting, plantings and even buildings.

Winnie started pottery lessons with June at Place des Arts several years ago so was pleased to have the show of her recent work on display there. Her main interest is to explore the idea of the teapot. She shows a variety of teapot forms, some with loopy handles and many colours of glaze, and most non-functional especially in the case of the raku-fired pieces which have decorative holes as part of the design. I liked her miniature teapots which showed a bigger variety of lid treatments and were functional. Other teapots were halved and displayed on the wall. The glaze effects on those were forms referring to her experience of immigration.

The show continues until Jan 28th. 2012.  Click this link to check times the galleries are open and information on the other two concurrent shows. I enjoyed the work of book artist Rachael Ashe in the Mezzanine Gallery.

www.placedesarts.ca

My one photo was taken on Granville Island on New Year's Eve. Alan and I were there to take in a matinee of the show 'Blood Brothers' at the Arts Club. Did not join in the standing ovation.. Afterwards we enjoyed dinner with family at 'Whet'. Good food.

I am happy to have an ipad now and will have to spend some days getting up to speed on its capabilities. Probably typing on my MacBook is preferable but when we're travelling I shall be able to email and use the internet. I downloaded 'DerManDar' and shall enjoy taking panoramic images. And 'Draw Free' has already proven addictive. I see that David Hockney's upcoming show at the Royal Academy is to include some ipad drawings!

NCECA, this year in Seattle, is causing much excitement locally. I've already registered. This will be the nearest we've ever had the ceramic conference. I was able to attend it when it was in Las Vegas (cheap flights from here) and more recently in Portland. Now I'm happy to know that my Medalta friend Brenda Sullivan plans to fly out from Ontario to travel down to Seattle for the conference with me. Alan can't resist the chance to spend 3 days in Seattle too. He'll enjoy the museums, galleries and meet up with archaeological friends.

Meanwhile I've been able to unwrap several half-made jugbirds and a bird teapot and get spouts/bills and handles on them and start the painting of them. Poor Soly at YVR Crafthouse is fairly patient but I now have a deadline... asap!

As we prepare for Christmas I have failed to complete the jugbirds I started for YVR Crafthouse. Unrealistically I said I could get them done in 3 weeks, ie about now. They are thrown and have their beaks inserted. I have also designed and made a bird teapot ordered a while ago to match a jugbird and sugarpot. Photos of the process will be posted when it's fired.

Meanwhile Alan and I took advantage of a perfect sunny, frosty day yesterday and walked locally. The link may take you to a facebook album I posted there showing Port Moody's pretty Inlet. Today is more normal West Coast above freezing weather - grey and damp. Perfect for doing chores here.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2793824253614.2143284.1498670722&type=1&l=5230f34e2e

Merry Christmas to all my pottery friends.

Yesterday I opened my latest firing. Along with my usual jugbirds I fired 3 oval plates and a larger platter for Vancouver artist Eric Metcalfe. He enjoys the change from his usual practice of 2D paintings with gouache. On bone-dry slab plates that I make for him he first draws with pencil and then applies 3 coats of two or three carefully chosen underglazes. I bisque fire them and then apply clear glaze and fire them to cone 04 along with my own pieces. Mine are all painted with coloured slips and I only use underglaze when I want red or a real orange.

This morning Eric persuaded his friend David Barnhill to drive him out to Port Moody to collect his latest plates and to have coffee with Alan and me. He's very happy with the way the plates have emerged - bright, with a buttery finish. David decided to buy a chickadee jugbird as a wedding present and one of my older 'Bloomsbury' dishes for a friend.

Another visitor came yesterday. He'd found me on the web and realizing I'd just opened the kiln came right over from Burnaby. He selected a larger Flicker Jugbird with a matching sugarpot. Only after he'd left did I realize that he had pieces I'd made for another customer! Stupid mistake to make. Now I really do have to make some more and get them fired asap!

I thought I'd just get another kiln load made and fired before Christmas. There are 18 new pieces plus 4 plates that Eric has painted so I'm loading the kiln this afternoon while it is not raining. But, oh no! here's an email from the airport Crafthouse wanting 8 more now. Only 5 that I have ready to fire are the size they like. Back to the wheel..

We thought we'd get a new tub and sink in our main bathroom and that we'd have tiles installed around the tub. I did that job 30 years ago and feel that someone else, younger and more agile can do it for me this time. But who knew it would take 3 weeks? It's amazing how hard it is to concentrate on studio work when there's work being done in the house, over one's head, or no-one has shown up today! When the old tub surround was removed we found the original wall-paper from 1914!

A beautiful Pileated Woodpecker showed up at the suet feeder yesterday. He is the inspiration for my Woodpecker jugbird. For the firing I plan for the next few days I made some of those and another of the other ones I make, the Red-Breasted Sapsucker. The red is so intense and I do enjoy making the swooping lines on the body. Whether or not it is recognizable as that particular bird doesn't really matter. The original RB Sapsucker from my 'Ornithikos' show at Gallery of BC Ceramics in 2003 now lives in Portland, Oregon. It's fun to imagine where all the birds have flown to.

I'll post photos next week of the new jugbirds. There is a large Western Bluebird.