We left our old home in June and now, after six months, we are settled and pleased to be here in Treetops. The turmoil and planning for leaving, after making an old house, garden, study and studio work for us for 54 years, took up many months. I hadn’t made pots for so long but in the Fall I threw stoneware pots for an October soda firing at Shadbolt Centre and some earthenware pieces. Max fired those for me. Since then I’ve worked only with D’Arcy’s earthenware and have just this week retrieved a small batch of glazed pots from TriCity potter Shelley’s kiln in Port Coquitlam.
Nowadays I am not concerned about making ware for the Christmas season. As long as I have the privilege of being a member of Circle Craft Co-op and having my work in Jonathon’s of London, Ontario, there are places where my pots can be seen. I have a smaller but good studio and make pots when I can. For now I plan to beg space in friends’ kilns! I made a few commissioned jugbirds but then made thrown and slab plates just for pleasure, plus a carved job.
Grandson Bennett asked me to make him a special plate with a big B and some bees, flowers and trees. He specially wanted those grooves ie sgraffito. So this will now be put aside until he and his brothers are here after Christmas. No, they don’t use wifi so this should remain a secret..
DIL Jennifer let me know that Bennett’s twin brother Lucas, the artist, has become interested in the work of MC Escher. There’s a rabbit hole! but I thought I’d try my hand at tessellation. Lucas is also fond of owls and I squoze small boys with elf hats in the spaces between the owls.
I painted two more thrown lunch-size plates with my familiar coloured slips and played with sgraffito some more on a green-painted slab plate. The Red Cardinal and the Puffin jugbirds have already been scooped up. Get in touch if you need a jugbird or a plate. More jugbirds will be in my next batch.
Carving grooves into fairly robust bowls, lidded forms and vases remains a particularly fun thing for me to do. I hope my old hands will allow me to do it for a long time. After I’d made this one I didn’t want to paint it with slip or terra sigillata. What to do? I spray pots with an atomizer for soda firings so I thought I’d thin a coloured slip or two and spray an earthenware piece. Clear glaze over that might be interesting, I thought. What do you think?
Now Alan and I are preparing for Christmas time. Mike will be here for 25th and the Edmonton clan fly out that day but will spend their week with Jen’s family first and then with us. Celebration time is flexible. I plan to catch up on my reading too on those dark Winter days but clay will call. I think I’m on a list for soda firing in 2026 so will cheerfully switch back to stoneware clay for that.
Enjoy time to relax with family and friends over the Christmas holidays. Here is my annual decoration, made yesterday with green gleanings from a walk in our Treetops neighbourhood and stuck in clay in a plastic cup in a Gitte-woven cedar container.
Happy Christmas & New Year!
Thank you for the gorgeous pictures and newsy update. Hope to see you soon. Happy
christmas to you and Alan.
Best wishes from Kay
Thanks Kay. Happy Christmas to you, too.
Merry Xmas Gillian. You were missed at the TCP Xmas party. See you in the New Year.
Same to you Pene. Yes I heard you braved the drive in torrential rain. Well done! I chickened out. See you next year for sure.
Merry Christmas to you and Alan, Gillian. It’s amazing that 6 months have flown by in your new home already.