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:
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.
Keith Rice-Jones’ show ‘Size Matters’
Yesterday Alan and I went in to Granville Island for the opening of Keith Rice-Jones' show 'Size Matters' at the Gallery of BC Ceramics. He worked on the ideas for these large garden pieces while on a 3-month solo residency at Sturt Pottery in Australia. The work looked fine in the gallery space, on plain concrete, in September sunshine.
As gallery manager Sharon Cohen said, it was a complete contrast to the previous wildly colourful show by Laura VanderLinde. September is a great time for a show there - I am remembering my 'Ornithikos' show which opened at this time 7 years ago. It launched my jugbirds and was a very exciting time for me.
Two guests were Ken (photographer and sculptor) and Carol (ceramics curator) Mayer,
Best wishes for a successful month, Keith.
Glaze firings in the lower mainland
As the summer draws to its end I'm trying to finish some more birds. The airport Crafthouse ordered another 8 medium so that's always an incentive to get a kiln filled. Here are some drying in the lovely sunshine. 
Interesting news is that Keith RJ phoned to tell me that he and Celia liked the display in Circle Craft's window and that he planned to finally get his salt kiln firing soon. So I popped over to their house yesterday with some of our Medalta slips for them to sample, and of course the couple of pots that didn't get in to our last firing in MH. Took a few to refire too.. Wouldn't it be marvellous if it is a fine firing on Saturday? Keith has a solo show opening next week at the Gallery of BC Ceramics. There'll be some new sculptures.
My glaze firing here will end tomorrow morning and then I'll be wanting to see how that other firing is going along. K and C used oodles of salt in their previous firing. Mmm...