presentations – Gillian McMillan — Rara Avis

Clay Artists from Taiwan

Gillian McMillan — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 21:39:10 +0000

On Saturday May 23rd ‘Where Form Meets the Boundless’ opened at JigSpace Gallery in Vancouver. Five well-known clay artists from Taiwan had travelled here with incredible work and joined four local ceramicists in this show. After the opening their Canadian hosts brought them to Burnaby’s Shadbolt Centre for a free public presentation by the five.

Burnaby resident, our own Amy Li Chuan Chang, told me that the visitors were all staying with her or with nearby friends and she organised a wonderful itinerary of local galleries and studios, scenic spots and restaurants for them.

The other local artists to join the five guests in the show were Debra Sloan, Wei Cheng and Ying-Yueh Chuang. Ying-Yueh was the interpreter as the presentations were all in Mandarin.

We were delighted to see the amazing work that these artists have made, some for many decades. They have used historical precedents, humour and surprise but all pieces are technically fine. It would appear that Taiwanese collectors are keen to purchase work that shows the evolution of each artist’s work, and do not expect them to stick to a recognized style for years. How refreshing!

My photos are taken from projected slides but will give you an idea of the work we were shown. All five artists gave a slide show of their journey in clay. As a result I knew I had to find a time to get myself to the new-to-me JigSpace Gallery in South Vancouver to see the work that they had brought over here. For today I’ll post a selection of the inspirational slide pics and I will make a separate blog about my subsequent visit to the gallery on the day before the show ended.

When the slide presentations were over Ying-Yueh coordinated questions from the audience. Here she is with the five artists, and a photo of Ming-Shun Cho explaining the wearable tea set.

Watch for the next blog, soon, where I’ll include statements by each artist and photos of their work in JigSpace Gallery.

Monoprinting on Clay

Gillian McMillan — Sat, 18 Apr 2026 18:33:18 +0000

Last Wednesday’s meeting of TriCity Potters was just exactly what a gathering of potters should be! Board member Pene Hollingworth volunteered to show us all how to go about making monoprints on clay forms. She had the two-hour session carefully planned so that we could all try the process and be finished in time.

Everything we needed for the evening was ready for the twenty or so members attending. Nicole had made 6″+ tiles which were not quite leather-hard. Pene provided a bucket of white slip, squares of newsprint paper, lots of underglazes and some finished samples of monoprinted pots. She expained in detail exactly how to make a design and transfer it to the tile. Of course the technique can be used on 3D shapes but they must be smooth and even to accept the print.

Briefly, she had us make a pencil drawing, outline it with black or dark underglaze and let it dry. Then we painted the image with more underglazes, remembering as we worked that the design would be reversed when printed. When all was dry she demonstrated painting the tile and then the paper images with white slip. When those were no longer shiny she carefully applied the print to the tile and pressed it on with a soft rubber rib.

The comfortable silence as we worked on our projects was rather special.

Then came the big reveal. The now fragile paper had to be carefully lifted from the tile to leave the reversed image. Pene stressed that this technique isn’t about producing a perfect copy but a way of creating a one-of-a-kind surface, with random, interesting variations. Our resulting tiles are good examples of mono- printing and we were all delighted with the experience. I, for one, wound up trying out the technique on a stoneware beaker the next day.

Thank you Pene for organizing and presenting a very useful and engaging evening, and thanks to the volunteer board members and more who cooperated to make sure the events ran smoothly and we completed the exercise.

Next month we will be learning how to transfer prints and photographs to clay, presented by Elizabeth Claridge. Do join us on May 20th at PoMoArts.

Meanwhile you still have time to see the best work of TriCity Potters at Place des Arts in Coquitlam.

How Hard Can It Be? CCS 2026

Gillian McMillan — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 05:47:46 +0000

The latest Canadian Clay Symposium took place at the Shadbolt Centre, as usual, on March 21st, and it’s taken this long for me to sort my photos and put together my experience of a super weekend. On the Friday evening Jesse Birch of Nanaimo AG gave the keynote speech at the Emily Carr U campus. He spoke about ways of sharing ceramic collections with gallery visitors.

Before his talk we were warmly welcomed by a local First Nations singer and drummer, and then by ECU Ceramics prof Brendan Tang. People we have lost since the last Symposium were remembered, and two longtime Shadbolt Centre employees were specially honoured. Sharon Reay and Linda Doherty published their thanks in the following BC Potters Guild newsletter.

Our thanks to the Canadian Clay Symposium Collective for all their hard work over the years and being such a joy to partner with. Our thanks to the Shadbolt Centre and City of Burnaby, for their support and for giving us the opportunity to work in one of the best jobs ever, with an immensely talented group of people, at the most beautiful location imaginable.

Back in 2004, British potter, Jane Hamlyn, spent a long day and night at the Shadbolt, setting-up for the ‘Re-Inventing the Wheel’ Symposium. Jet-lagged and exhausted, she asked “Where on earth did you ever find so many people, who care so much?” We would simply like to point out a few of those people, who cared so much, and made our jobs so much easier:

Cathi Jeﬀerson: Who started the whole Symposium ball rolling.
Keith and Celia Rice-Jones: For feeding and housing so many weary, travelling potters from all over the world.
Carol Mayer: Who always lent her voice and her support to any event we asked her to.
Bob Kingsmill: Whose response to whatever request we had, even at short notice, was always: “What do you want me to do, sweetheart?”
And, of course, Jay MacLennan: The guy with all the answers, all the time – who never learned to say, “No” to us.

Thank you all, so very much, from the bottom of both our hearts.

Thank you Linda and Sharon for your enthusiastic help to us, Shadbolt’s workshop and class attendees over the years. Below are my poor photos of some of their work, displayed at the Centre for us to see the next day. Here also are Robin and Eden Dupont who fervently asked for our assistance in the ongoing saga of saving the famed Ceramic programme which was the Kootenay School of the Arts. Selkirk College has announced its closure but there is hope for saving it..

The following day in Burnaby was filled with presentations, vendor and information booths, the Potters Guild of BC one-day show ‘Sur La Table’, the Nelson Airstream Gallery, and adjacent shows in the Lower Mainland. I think I’d better make a separate blog to show some of Fraser Valley Potters Guild’s show at the nearby Deer Lake Art Gallery.

I spent the first hour in the large room where Calgary potters Vin Arora and Lael Chmelyk were demonstrating. I believe they are studio mates in Calgary. Vin has only moved over the Rockies in the last year or so, having taught here in the Lower Mainland for many years. As Vin spoke enthusiastically about his journey in clay, with a good slide show, Lael quietly got on with throwing parts for teapot and other forms she would later assemble. Vin then worked as she gave her presentation. Later in the afternoon I saw several pieces that they had completed.. or nearly.

Some of their pots were displayed in the same room, for sale.

Then I checked the studio theatre presentation room to see Vancouver’s Jai Sallay-Carrington and Grace Han from Winnipeg. Unfortunately this wasn’t a room you could easily come and go from and I’m sorry to admit that I was only there once. I didn’t see any of Grace’s work displayed in the hallway but I have good memories of her work from a show with our own Gloria Han at Coquitlam’s Evergreen AG a while ago.

In the hallway there were displays of presenters Jai and Lael’s work. We were so amazed by Jai’s intricate sculptures at the recent PGBC 70th Anniversary show at the Italian Cultural Centre.

I grabbed a lunch from one of the food trucks outside, visited the Airstream Gallery, walked down to Deer Lake AG, and checked the vendors and information booths for a while. Suddenly it was time for the presenters to be finishing their work and vendors packing up. All the conversations with so many friends in our clay community, and lots of good pots and supplies to admire, made my day complete. I’m just sorry I never got back to see what Grace and Jai had spent their day making.

As I returned to the parking lot I passed the display of bisque-fired pots made by previous Shadbolt Centre workshop presenters. I have enjoyed so many of these workshops and meeting the artists.