Alan and I took ourselves off to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, for a couple of weeks in January and were very lucky to escape a week of heavy snow here in Vancouver. We enjoyed the warmth, the colour of plants, exotic wildlife, Surrealist and Folk Art and friendly Mexicans. My resolution to be drawing more often only resulted in one afternoon of sketching with watercolours and…
I have been using wetted paper as a stencil between layers of coloured slips. The design can be an intricate image, or merely torn strips as Raider Pierre Coupey has done. I decided to cut random angles in the sides of my strips of newsprint and then experiment with two or three possibilities for the overlaid slip. Porcelain slip on an earlier plate was pleasing.…
Before I headed out with fellow TriCity Potters Shelley Bondheim and Gay Mitchell last Tuesday I loaded glazed plates and jugbirds into their electric firing and turned the kiln on to heat slowly. We three arrived at the Shadbolt Centre's 'Steam Plant' for 3pm and were quickly joined by nearly all of the other participants in last week's soda firing. Jay and Tony finally opened…
Yesterday turned out to be a really wonderful day. I've been working towards two firings for the last month or more so began my Friday by getting out to my kiln shed and glazing all the earthenware pieces that I'd waxed the night before. It turns out that Greenbarn's acrylic-type wax resist needs to rest overnight anyway (and even then doesn't really repel glaze like…
In spite of a little overnight snowfall five Raiders showed up in Port Moody on Wednesday. The sun was shining so the ice on the road and walkways was quickly melted. I just managed to get another group of plates bisque-fired and cool enough to take out of the kiln that morning and I didn't want to slip while carrying them from the kiln shed…