Last night’s meeting of TriCity Potters was a happy evening. There was a good turnout, some new members, lots of conversation, good cookies and coffee. Over 70 bowls were brought and donated to Coquitlam Gogos. Many more, including my paltry 7 will be added to that total. Hannah Diamond was delighted with the number, quality and size of the bowls. Several of us bought tickets at $35 each to attend the evening event on March 8th so we’ll bring home a bowl as well! The bowl filled with soup, some yummy bread, a napkin, live music and the opportunity to bid on silent auction items all come with the ticket. This local initiative, like so many other Empty Bowl parties, will benefit a charity. In this case all money raised will be sent by Coquitlam Gogos to the Stephen Lewis Foundation in support of African grandmothers raising their AIDS-orphaned grandchildren.

After we’d taken coffee and had a good chance to catch up on each other’s clay adventures we were given a very well organized power point presentation by 5 members who had travelled together to China last October. Grace Siu had initiated the tour and she was joined by Kay Bonathan, Eliza Wang, Carlene Akester and Hannah Chan. Details on their travels will be available on the TCP website shortly.

http://www.tricitypotters.ca/hot3.html

Eliza’s daughter Audrey had assembled the photos and Kay was the primary spokesperson. Their travels were most interesting but I was intrigued with two-week Residency in JingdeZhen. I really would have liked to join them. Certainly the fact that  three of them are able to communicate in Mandarin was incredibly helpful. They stayed in the Residency accomodation and ate there. They chose workshops (just for the 5 of them) on underglaze and overglaze painting, mould-making, brush-making, pouring slip into said moulds, porcelain flower-making and porcelain carving. They each had a studio space and learnt lots but partly because of the short time and also the limit on luggage weight within China they weren’t able to bring much work home with them. Visits to huge kilns, seeing enormous (3-storey high!) porcelain vases, choosing Ming shards at a market, eating really cheap but excellent local food and then travelling to beautiful parks and historic towns nearby made the whole experience something unforgettable.

Thank you Kay, Eliza, Grace, Hannah and Carlene for sharing your great adventure. And thanks to all the members who have so generously made and donated excellent bowls for a good cause.