Photos of my finished pots

Photos of all the June 2010 Artists-in-Residence

Here are photos of the June Artists-in-Residence, mostly with their final Open Studio display. Click on the image for the name.

Last two days..

Now I'm in Banff on July 1st, Canada Day. Alan and I left 'The Hat' after breakfast for the 4 1/2 hr drive here, arriving around 3pm. Every day of June was spent at the Residency so it's going to be hard to get back to my usual life.

The last three days were amazingly packed, with the salt kiln firing on the 28th. I thought I might sleep in on Tuesday 29th but Joanne gave Brenda and me a ride in to the Shaw Centre at 9am so preparations for the evening's 'Open Studio' began. We also had clean-up jobs to tackle. I made notes of various salt slips to try out in the future. Brenda helped me to make a nice display of my salt-fired pots from the early part of the month.

Alan arrived in town from his 2-day drive from Vancouver at about 4pm. I quickly packed all my student flat stuff and he and I had supper before returning to the studio for the evening. Everybody had their studio spaces all cleaned up and their work on display for the local dignitaries and interested locals to see. Candice left to set out driving to a teaching position in Phoenix early in the day but all the others were there.

When it was over we gave thank-you cards to Jenn, Robin, Aaron, Les, the Friends of Medalta and the Medicine Hat Potters. They all have done so much to make our month-long experience something to remember. Later several of us enjoyed some time in The Silver Buckle for a final get-together.

The Wednesday (was that really only yesterday?) was another completely busy day as we anxiously waited for several kilns to cool. The gas was turned off yesterday so a last big gas kiln firing was delayed until the morning so some artists were stuck there until late in the evening and who knows how they'll connect with their finished work? Luckily the soda cone 6 and our salt cone 10 were finished before the gas was turned off.

Al spent much of the morning on a tour of the Medalta Historic District while I packed up the pots on my work table and did some of the cleaning chores. Lots of farewells all around, pots bought, given and exchanged, emails collected, borrowed bricks etc returned and finally, in the early afternoon we deemed the salt kiln cool enough to open. The best part of the month!

The cone 10s were over, reduction was just right and there was lots of orange peel. Claude and I were very happy with the results. Others with work in the firing were Leigh, Teresa, Joanne and Brenda. Sadly Leigh had left so his pots will be sent on to New Brunswick by Claude. Aaron, Les and today's visitor Ginny Marsh seemed to enjoy the surfaces and colours of the new pots. I gave some mugs away and left one piece, the 'flowerage' for anyone interested in what came to be known this month as 'heavy salt'.

Al tried unsuccessfully to find the Saamis Archaeological site (the information kiosk at the 'tallest teepee' wasn't informative) while I spent a long time getting all the lovely new pots packed. Claude had cleaned all our shelves so I painted on the kiln wash for the next firing. With the gas kiln still firing Al and I, then Sara and Kaitlyn, Teresa, Luann and Brenda got a late supper at Sabi, pan-Asian restaurant. Very tasty, affordable food. Jin stayed to get that final cone 6 melted so I didn't get to say good-bye. But it was time for final hugs and Al and I took the stuffed Honda off to the Best Western. We took a brief detour to the park beside the South Saskatchewan River and were pleased to see some of Jim Marshall's brick murals. We'd hoped to meet up with him today but there wasn't time. Sorry Jim, perhaps next time..

Joanne left to start driving back to Vancouver, Claude and later Teresa headed east to Saskatchewan, Leigh left with Rose and Sandi for a night in Calgary and Thursday in Canmore. He flies home to NB on Thurs. Sara and Kaitlyn will start driving back to Ontario and NY state. And Jin will go with Luann to spend a holiday in Whitehorse, before returning to Virginia. And Brenda will board the shuttle bus to Calgary first thing on July 1st to fly home to Toronto and Port Hope. I have made friends and will miss the daily shared passion for clay, but I shall also be happy to be home soon.

Al and I will spend 3 days in Banff visiting with neice Tasha, her husband Gerald and their 3 yr-old Gabriella, then head west. There'll be a night in Tappen with old friends, then home. After I've inserted quite a lot of photos in this blog I'll call it complete and then perhaps blog occasionally, when there are ceramic things to say. But I'll tag it differently if I can figure out what Quentin was explaining to me about that.

Thank you for reading, those family and pottery friends who did. Do comment if you have advice or enjoyed my ramblings. And if anyone can offer me the chance to share the work of firing and salting a gas-fired salt kiln in return for the inclusion of some of my work  or just accept filthy lucre, please do get in touch. It's not possible for me to build a salt kiln in my garden in Port Moody. I know I'm going to find it hard to return to the familiarity of my slip-painted earthenware of recent years.

Salt kiln loaded

At the studio just after 6am and brought Brenda, Leigh and Jin. Joanne and Leigh helped me load the salt kiln and I am so grateful. They helped make decisions on placement on each shelf and between us we loaded everything waiting for this last salt firing - except for a baker and bird bowl of mine and a bowl of Claude's. I can't complain - I have 40 pieces in. Now to wait, and salt this evening. The other 2 had to wait for the soda kiln to cool before they could load their cone 6 soda firing.

9.30am I returned my rented Nissan Sentra to Enterprise Rent-a-Car and they gave me a lift back to Medalta. It cost $251 with tax for a week and a week-end. It's been a sanity saver!

Teresa took me over to Plainsman to return a box of clay and pay my bill. It turns out I've only used two boxes in the month, a box each of H550 and H570. The one produces nice orange peel and the other throws beautifully. Most of the work in the current firing is a mixture of the two. I'll know in two days whether this was a good idea.

Picked up my Trumpeter Swan (cone 04 with Ball Clay terra sig) from our Residents' Show. The slip-painted Flicker has sold.

Extremely hot day and all there is to do is clean up. Jim Marshall and Harvey Fix will give slide shows tonight but Claude and I may be salting just then.

As it turned out we were much later than expected so were able to see both slide shows. The salting went on until almost midnight and we turned off the kiln at 1am.

all set for salt firing #3. clean-up time

My final pieces are bisqued so they were glazed and wadded. The salt kiln is still super hot from the previous 'low' salt firing so we'll be loading and firing from very early tomorrow.

Leon Popik, Emily Carr UAD ceramic technician and his dad, Leon visited. Maybe he'll take the information about Medalta's soda and salt kilns back to Vancouver. He says EC is building a whole new campus off Granville Island.

Another visitor was Brendan Tang from Kamloops with his girlfriend Geeta. Brendan will be a Resident for July with 7 others.

I used the photo booth at the Medalta office for a while. But it's an early night as tomorrow will be LONG and stressful!

This is what is ready for the salt firing. Of course I hope we'll fit it all in. Joanne, Leigh and Claude will be helping me either with the loading or the firing.

Al leaves Port Moody for the 2-day drive to Medicine Hat tomorrow morning.

Medalta tractor party

Where did the day go? It seems I spent hours wadding my pieces. Others were collecting all sorts of materials from the Medalta work yard to make plinths and use the historical connections for their displays for next Tuesday.

An extraordinary storm, typical of MH in June we're told, roared in and out - hot sun, black cloud, thunder, lightning, huge hail and bright sun again.

I dashed back to our flat to pick up a contribution to a party supper. Was delighted to find a paint store open where I bought carpenter's glue to stick the wads.

Back at the studio picnic tables were set up outside and the parking oval was converted into a race track for silly vehicles. Most of the Residents and some guests ate, raced, sang and generally enjoyed a happy summer evening.

Luann had us in stitches trying to arrange the Cremation of Sam McGee.

And Brenda astonished Isla by clowning around.

Evening out at Red Rock Coulee

During the morning I helped load a bisque. Otherwise I started on getting all the insides of my pieces glazed - mostly shino and some with the 'Yellow Salt' available here. I don't have to do anything to the outsides - it all depends on the slips I applied before bisque.

Great excitement for some as the wood kiln was finally opened.

Brenda and I popped out to find a hardware store and something for supper but wound up simply sitting in a cafe for a sandwich. We're all getting tired.

Late afternoon, after a meeting to discuss Tuesday evening's Open House and general clean-up we bought something to barbecue and a bottle of wine.

6pm Harvey Fix picked up Claude, Leigh, Teresa, Brenda and me to take us out to Red Rock Coulee, roughly a half-hour drive. Les Manning and Rose and Sandi were already there. We had a perfect evening to stroll amongst the odd red rocks, the lichen, splendid wild flowers and even to see a lazy rattlesnake.

Harvey got briquettes burning on his barbecue and we enjoyed our meal at a picnic table as the sun set. Fabulous colours - intense blue and orange.

Thank you so much Harvey for taking us out to see the land you're so proud of.

Last day to load bisque

I figure this was the last day to make anything new and get it dry and bisqued. So I merely threw 5 tumblers with some remaining clay and spent the rest of the day watching the serious sunshine dry out yesterday's pieces. Now the Watering Canard, Flowerage, 2 jugbirds, a butter dish and a squared bowl are sprayed with slip and set in the kiln room. Even the tumblers are dry and sprayed. I hope they are included in someone's bisque tomorrow. We all hope to have our work fired in the best possible kiln, atmosphere and temperature. I'm sure this anxiety happens in every Residency during the last week.

Joanne showed me where Medalta has an excellent light box for professional photography so I took some shots with my less-than-professional Olympus.

These two photos show the lovely orange peel finish and the variety of colours possible with salt firing.

Rather late I took Brenda and Sukjin back to our 'res' where we enjoyed spaghetti bolognese made by B late last night.

Al phoned me. He travelled home from his dig in Barkley Sound today. Our garden is a jungle he says! Tomorrow he will go to our son Steve's Engineering Degree Graduation at BCIT. Wish I could be there too.