Three artists, Renée, Monique and Marlene, were here yesterday for the final 'Raid' of 2018. They had a quiet relaxing day concentrating on painting their platters. Renée has completed two of her abstract collage images, Marlene completed work on a pair of platters she'd started earlier and then painted a pair of dishes depicting food and Monique spent her time on a delicate image of…
Twenty years have passed in the blink of an eye. Artists who have worked or taught at or have shown in the galleries of Port Moody Arts Centre were invited to submit work for a commemorative show recently. Today I finally found time to pop in to have a better look at the work displayed - the openings are often more about catching up with…
Any time you fire with flame rather than predictable electricity you are going to have surprises. Whether your work is in a reduction-firing in a gas kiln, in a wood kiln or a salt or soda firing you can never be sure how things will work out. There are sometimes serendipitous happenings and other times when the surfaces are flat, rough, crunchy or the wrong…
After waiting three suspenseful days the fifteen TriCity potters who'd taken part in a first group soda firing showed up at 3pm on Tuesday afternoon to see what we'd done. When I arrived a few tall pieces from the very top had been removed but I quickly snapped a photo of the front section of the load. With quite a few blue slip sprayed pieces…
Last year the TriCity Potters decided to ask for a group soda firing at Shadbolt Centre and we were given a slot for this April. To get prepared we invited Fredi Rahn, who teaches there and who has lots of experience with soda firing, to give us a presentation in January. She discussed which clays to use and explained that the outsides of the pots…