In spite of a little overnight snowfall five Raiders showed up in Port Moody on Wednesday. The sun was shining so the ice on the road and walkways was quickly melted. I just managed to get another group of plates bisque-fired and cool enough to take out of the kiln that morning and I didn’t want to slip while carrying them from the kiln shed to the studio.

Eric, Kate, Mina and Philippe chose which shape and size of plates they’d like to work with for the day, grabbed a cup of coffee or tea and one or two of my flapjacks (English oatmeal, butter, golden syrup and brown sugar sinfulnesses) and settled down at our work table. Seeing that four of us had attended the interesting conversation between Stan Douglas and George Lewis about Stan’s Parisian jazz video from 1992 at the Western Front last Saturday, Mina brought out a selection of splendid jazz pieces to hear. It made for a pleasing accompaniment to our working.

Kate settled down to work diligently all day and completed her chosen pieces. They are very carefully drawn and painted. Eric works in a similar way, using a ruler to plot out where he’ll put the arrangement of just two or three colours. Mina chose a large and two medium round plates and paints the whole surface before applying contrasting colours over that. She doesn’t pre-plan the shapes but considers which colours work together. And Philippe came fully prepared for the day with several works on paper and circular cut-outs to place over them to select the day’s images. As is his wont he used wax resist between layers of underglaze – so I needed to do a second bisque firing to burn out said wax. I brush off the loose flakes and rinse the plate before applying glaze.

Marlene joined us just before lunch so we were seven for another edition of the potluck Raiders’ feast. She spent the afternoon painting a peaceful ocean on a large oval platter.

Several of the group had gone to the trouble of preparing their contribution the night before or that morning. Philippe had made what may have been ‘Pão de Queijo’ using tapioca flour and cheese and froze them. His had a firm outer layer with melty cheese inside. We baked them just before we sampled them. He also made a salad of mangoes, cucumber and pink onions. Mina cooked up a really tasty Wintery soup which I think contained squash, cream and flavourful seasonings and topped with chopped grapes and parsley. We ate it with fresh French bread and sliced ham that Eric brought and baked, stuffed potato skins from Marlene. Kate baked some yummy date and berry oatmeal squares and also brought baba ganoush. Thank you all for going the extra mile to prepare treats for us all.

Over lunch we discussed the idea of putting together a Raiders’ cookbook. What do you think? We could show the food on our plates.

I’ve included the first two Rhytons that I have made for a planned collaboration with Eric. He has now painted them in his idiosyncratic style and I’ll fire them along with this group of plates.

When they all left for Vancouver after tea, I assembled their work to take a photo. I painted plates along with them this day, finishing one and starting another. Mine are made with red clay and I prefer using coloured slips on leather hard rather than underglazes on bone dry or bisqued white clay. I completed the second plate yesterday, making an effort to avoid angular shapes and wound up with a swirly design. My two won’t be fired with the other plates as they’re already bisqued. So now it’s time to get really productive Gillian and fill that kiln again.

That evening was TriCity Potters’ monthly meeting so I simply delivered my six colourful bowls (and some by Sue Griese) to Hannah Diamond. She was collecting our contributions for an upcoming fundraiser Gogos dinner in Burnaby. Now I hear that I won a ticket  – and it’s a sold-out event! Here is a photo of our club’s donated bowls. Well done all. Sorry I didn’t stay for the rest of the meeting – there’s only so much fun I can have in one day!