Yesterday was another busy day, with three ‘Raiders’ here to paint plates all day, and then a TriCity Potters’ meeting in the evening.

There will be a set of six plates, painted by a selected group of Vancouver artists, to be donated to the annual Western Front Gala in a month or two. I was asked to design a new shape, an oval plate without a rim. It will have no foot, like the previous ones, but will sit flat and be rather sixties-looking. I’ve thrown three ovals, bisque-fired them, and used them to make several plates ready for the painters.

So yesterday the first three; Mina Totino, Monique Fouquet and Philippe Raphanel, spent some concentrated working hours here. As usual there was a splendid potluck lunch to keep up the artistic energy. Alan and I are so lucky!

Philippe had already started four plates on his first visit here, before Christmas, so was experimenting with wax resist on those. And of course he painted one of the new simple ovals for the group donation.

Mina had a hand built creation to paint, as well as a thrown plate/dish I’d made earlier and then she too painted an oval.

And Monique passed her day carefully painting two of the new shaped plates. I just have a few photos of them working and we’ll all have to wait patiently to see the results.

They helped me to carry the plates down to the half-loaded kiln so I was able to turn it on right away. That will take care of bisquing all the tiles from last week. Then there’ll be two kiln loads of glazing to do.

Meanwhile I was applying slips, including a couple of new ones, to some stoneware pieces I’m putting aside for a future salt firing.

Next week another three artists will be here to complete the six plates intended for the Auction.