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.
