Just a week after I’d collected an exciting new selection of pots from a late November soda firing, there was one more chance to fire a couple more.
Fraser Valley Potters’ Guild, which meets at Kwantlen College in South Surrey, decided to offer a group soda firing at Shadbolt Centre’s popular Vault Soda kiln instead of their obviously impossible annual Holiday party. Members were invited to bring along just two taller-than-mug-size pieces with a possible third. Guild funds paid for the kiln rental and technicians. Due to the fact that I’m a founding member of said guild (as a ceramics student of Fred Owen’s at then-Douglas College/now Kwantlen U, in 1979) I have been granted a lifetime membership. I rarely drive all the way down to Kwantlen for their meetings, and don’t participate in their juried shows, or raku firings but I thought that I would join the group for this event. Three fellow members of TriCity Potters also belong to FVPG and signed up too, along with 32 other potters.
Kay Bonathon was assigned the job of transporting our work to the kiln for the spraying, glazing and wadding day so that there would be only a select few working there at a time. As is my usual plan I’d sprayed, bisqued, liner glazed and wadded my two pieces ahead of time. Thankyou Kay for taking our work over to Burnaby on December 9th.
Long-time FVPG member, keen organizer and experienced ceramic technician, Cheryl Stapleton had come up with this soda-firing-instead-of-a-party idea. She took photos of the kiln when half and then fully loaded. I know that Linda Doherty and Tony Wilson were technicians for this firing and we were sent a photo of Cheryl at a soda spraying moment. That’s all we could know about the firing. Cheryl shared further photos yesterday showing the back and front shelves again, this time with all the ware cooked. Because we were asked to bring a variety of shapes and heights there was lots of flame and soda circulation which seem to have produced good results for everybody.
I was asked to be the member from the TriCities to collect our ware, and as Burnaby potter Dorothy Doherty lives near us, I collected hers too. When I drove to the kiln area yesterday, past a busy film crew beside Burnaby Art Gallery, I found that almost of the work had been collected already. Cheryl was the only person there, in charge of pick-up and directing shelf scraping.. my job. I quickly took one photo of our work, packed it all in boxes and in no time had cleaned my very small assignment of two shelves. The last remaining pieces were collected by a couple of others and clean-up was completed.
It is odd to be part of a soda firing, and not. We can rely on the technicians to run the firing efficiently and to produce the best results possible.. let’s face it.. we participants do as we’re told, but I feel as if I haven’t contributed to the group effort. Once again I must thank the technicians for their work and Shadbolt Centre for allowing these atmospheric firings to take place. Their safety protocols are meticulous. And thanks Cheryl for being our cheer-leader. Although not really a social gathering the firing was a happy substitute, and for me, much more convenient than driving south of the Fraser River!
I took the liberty of photographing the pieces I’d collected and then sent an email to Kay, Carlene, Eliza and Dorothy to ask them to fetch the work from my studio. In the end I did have visitors! a rare treat these days. This morning the first three were in my studio (masked) and we enjoyed a friendly critique session. One day I’ll be able to offer coffee and cookies again. Dotted amongst this blog you can see the pieces gleaned from the kiln. I won’t comment but you’ll see that they can be pleased with their pieces.
I’m happy with the two I’d reserved for this firing, having made them and prepared them at the same time as my other November pieces. The tall ‘Rare Bird’ is a version of a Watering Can-ard that I’ve made only two or three times before. Jonathon Bancroft Snell now owns the one I’d made while a resident artist at Medalta ten years ago and he was hoping I’d get my act together and make some more. I enjoyed making this one so I plan to keep on. They’re never going to be exactly the same.
The smaller jugbird has a pleasing blue-grey bill and good orange peel and colour on his body.
This is surely the last blog I’ll write in 2020. I hope that at some point in the next year pottery meetings, gallery openings, studio visits and workshops can start up again. Starved of stimulus and companionship we all are. So my Rare Bird comes to you, as we approach the shortest day of the year, with my best wishes for as good a Christmas holiday as you can manage, while being extra cautious, and hope for a return to life close to what it was, sometime next year.
