It was still snowing yesterday as I unloaded my bisque kiln. Three days non-stop is rather unusual for Vancouver. But we could hear the dripping last night and this morning we woke to dry streets and lots of fog and now we have brilliant sunshine.
But the lack of winter tyres was enough reason not to drive in to Vancouver last night so I missed BC Potters’ Guild AGM. Sorry folks! I hope it was well-attended. Instead I started glazing my 24 new stoneware pieces for a planned salt firing out at Herman’s later this week. I’m mostly using shino, applied thinly, as the liner for these pieces. But I have used ‘yellow salt’ and ‘white salt’ glazes on a few to remind myself of how they behave. As I sprayed slips the other day, with latex resist on beaks to allow for contrasting colours, I was happily remembering my intense month working with salt firing at Medalta in 2010. I realized I was having FUN! It is good to know that this concentrated work still pleases me.
Today I finished lining all the work with glaze and then glued wads on the bases of them all, including on some draw-rings. The wads and glue can dry tomorrow so that I can pack it all for the 50-minute drive out to Abbotsford. Now I’m really glad the snow has stopped. I’ve also rolled up lots of ‘salt burritos’, each containing 1/4 lb of rock salt. This time the firing is to be shared with Herman, Dave Dobie, Cathi Jefferson, Nora Vaillant and her friend Jana. These five built the salt kiln together some years ago and I’m happy to have been invited to fire with them.
Cathi is combining sharing this week’s firing with us, with giving a workshop for Fraser Valley Potters on Saturday. This must be a rather special opportunity for her because Herman Venema’s studio is where she started her pottery career, first with lessons from Herman and then working alongside him for several years. I gather she is firing the salt kiln again early in March. Again, this is a workshop, and is fully booked.
As a final note today I’d like to post a link to a Youtube video that came across my Facebook page recently. Old film has been discovered of the last potters working in Dorset’s Verwood pottery. There had been a pottery there for hundreds of years and examples of Verwood pottery can be found in Salisbury museum, but the workshop closed in 1953. Always interested in finding local potteries and archaeology, Alan and I attempted to find the pottery some years ago but there is really nothing to see any more. We were told of a good book on the subject, “Dorset Country Pottery: The kilns of the Verwood district” by Jo Draper with Penny Copland-Griffiths and happily found a copy. Basically an archaeology text it has great colour photos of the pieces owned by local enthusiasts and in museums and old photos of the pottery when it was still operational. Coming across the film has reminded me of the pottery that was made in the English county where I grew up, and it is nice to see archaeologist Penny Copland-Griffiths interviewing Somerset (the next county) potter John Leach about his memories of his father (David Leach) and grandfather (Bernard Leach) mentioning Verwood Potteries. When you have a spare 33 minutes enjoy this old film with its contemporary additions.
Have a wonderful time firing with old friends, Gillian. I sure miss,the FVPG, living here in Powell River. I do have a couple of potter friends and I love having my own studio. However, it isn’t the same as having easy access to workshops such as the one Cathi is doing on Sat or to meet and hang about once a month with such a talented group of like minded folks as those at FVPG. Enjoy!
Thanks for commenting Brenda. Yes, it is good to have like-minded people around. I’m afraid I hardly ever get out to FVPG meetings any more – this old lady doesn’t like driving to South Surrey on winter nights any more! But we have our local group, TriCity Potters, and do enjoy our monthly meetings.