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…
Today I needed to make two more oval lunch plates so I thought I'd take photos to show how I use the new cheese-cutter. To make a clear story of the process I've assembled the photos into a Picasa album. If you click on this link you can watch a slide show. It might inspire you to throw some forms for making plates yourself. https://picasaweb.google.com/112208740085943894765/MakingOvalSlabLunchPlates…
After throwing four earthenware plates with my usual red D'arcy clay and getting them trimmed I was happy to clean out my wheel and start work with grey stoneware. I did have fun painting the plates with my coloured slips because there were no restrictions on what I did to decorate them. It's been quite a while since I applied bands of colour and brushstrokes…
Look at what my son Steve has made for me! A skookum cheese-cutter. When I make slab plates in bisqued forms I need a nice sharp wire to cut off the excess clay at a 45 degree angle. Walter Ostrom showed us how to make plates and platters in this way when he taught the 3-week Summer course at ECIAD back in 1993. I've been…
I fired my kiln with only a partial load this week because I can't keep the airport Crafthouse shop waiting any longer. This afternoon Alan took photos of the latest work to emerge. There are two pieces by Eric Metcalfe using a new bold combination of turquoise, red and black on Naples yellow. They're quite striking! He'll be donating…