Now I'm in Banff on July 1st, Canada Day. Alan and I left 'The Hat' after breakfast for the 4 1/2 hr drive here, arriving around 3pm. Every day of June was spent at the Residency so it's going to be hard to get back to my usual life. The last three days were amazingly packed, with the salt kiln firing on the 28th. I…

At the studio just after 6am and brought Brenda, Leigh and Jin. Joanne and Leigh helped me load the salt kiln and I am so grateful. They helped make decisions on placement on each shelf and between us we loaded everything waiting for this last salt firing - except for a baker and bird bowl of mine and a bowl of Claude's. I can't complain…

My final pieces are bisqued so they were glazed and wadded. The salt kiln is still super hot from the previous 'low' salt firing so we'll be loading and firing from very early tomorrow. Leon Popik, Emily Carr UAD ceramic technician and his dad, Leon visited. Maybe he'll take the information about Medalta's soda and salt kilns back to Vancouver. He says EC is building…

Where did the day go? It seems I spent hours wadding my pieces. Others were collecting all sorts of materials from the Medalta work yard to make plinths and use the historical connections for their displays for next Tuesday. An extraordinary storm, typical of MH in June we're told, roared in and out - hot sun, black cloud, thunder, lightning, huge hail and bright sun…

During the morning I helped load a bisque. Otherwise I started on getting all the insides of my pieces glazed - mostly shino and some with the 'Yellow Salt' available here. I don't have to do anything to the outsides - it all depends on the slips I applied before bisque. Great excitement for some as the wood kiln was finally opened. Brenda and I…