Blogs about art in Port Moody
Mina Totino really likes the square plates I make for her. They're simply a clay slab slumped into an old electric frying pan, with the edges tidied up when the clay is firmer. Thinking that if others, and I, would like to paint some more I decided to make a clay mould and simplify the job. So now I have a bisque-fired form and can slump…
I expect it was the Gallery of BC Ceramics' call for yunomis that got me thinking about making some again. Lots of atmospheric-firing people like to make these Oriental-inpired handle-less cups but I've always felt that if I prefer to drink tea or coffee out of a mug or cup with a handle then I shouldn't mess with another culture. But the form is…
My favourite piece to come out of my two recent glaze firings is the Pileated Woodpecker Jugbird. In early January I posted a photo of his beginnings and here is a photo of him being painted later. He has a wheel-thrown body, head, legs and neck. Those parts are carefully fitted together and I add his jolly crest, a slot for filling and pouring and a handle, and…
Last Fall I took myself for a little walk behind Port Moody's Rec Centre to Noon's Creek. Salmon return from the ocean every year, swimming all the way past Vancouver and many miles inland to the end of Burrard Inlet where they fight their way up Noon's Creek. For a long time now volunteers have enhanced the gravel beds and put in 'ladders' to…
I had to do two glaze firings recently to accommodate all my recent work and the plates, tiles and leaves of my friends. The 'Port Painters' had painted plates and tiles, Maria brought a super fish later and then Eliza asked if I would glaze fire her new low-fire experiments with my clear glaze. Judith Atkinson experimented with a small coupe plate and then drew…