You can see the top shelf as I opened the kiln, and then after I’d removed the plate. The post and stilt just allowed enough room for the height of the plate.

Here are all the pieces in that firing. Eric took all the Raiders’ plates in to town on Saturday.

Today Alan and I had a pleasant day delivering almost everything else around the Lower Mainland. Ten ordered jugbirds went to Crafthouse YVR at the Airport, four new Papua/New Guinea jugbirds were left off at the Museum of Anthropology to be taken over to Alcheringa Gallery in Victoria, and after a little stop to enjoy the view over English Bay, we found a parking spot on Granville Island.

At the Gallery of BC Ceramics there was an Ice Cream Social going on! Potter Karel Peeters has made umpteen affordable and very colourful ice cream bowls and today purchasers could have a $5 serving of the best ice cream included in the $28 price of each bowl, free! Here is the bowl I couldn’t resist! The ice cream was provided by Earnest Ice Cream, located at Quebec and 2nd avenue. Karel’s solo show of more sculptural work opens at the Gallery on Thursday June 30th, 5-7pm, this was just a tantalizing sample.

I left some new plates for sale at the gallery, and took a few new jugbirds to Circle Craft Gallery in the Netloft Building. Much as I’d like to revert to stoneware clay and make some more work for a future salt firing, I think I’d better concentrate on making more earthenware jugbirds for these two galleries – or they won’t allow me to be represented by them any more!

When Alan and I returned from a recent trip to Tacoma, Wash. (where Al attended the North-West Anthropological Conference) it was time to empty the glaze kiln. I had managed to remove two of my bird-feeders while they were still warm, to take down to the States with us for a friend who’d ordered them.

Now the rest have been photographed and, apart from two plates of mine, all the work has been distributed. I’ll post pics of the latest Raiders plates soon but today I wanted to record which birds I’ve just made.

Eclectic Gallery on Oak Bay Avenue, in Victoria, had been anxiously waiting for me to top up their group of jugbirds so they got first dibs – five regular-sized ones and four miniature guys that they like.

I kept back four for the Gallery of BC Ceramics and took them in last Thursday when the Carole Epp show opened. Happily, two of the four were snapped up by a North Vancouver collector before they could be placed on the gallery shelves! He chose the colourful Scarlet Macaw and an Eagle. So that gallery needs more, and on the same evening I promised Circle Craft that they’re next on the list. Since then I have thrown the bodies for twelve new jugbirds but with theatre tickets, a grandson birthday, pottery packing and mailing, gardening, grocery shopping etc it seems impossible to grab two studio working days in a row!

Also in that last firing were two silly Scarlet Macaw mugs, a special order from a collector in Indiana. He asked me to add names and I guess I don’t mind. He already has two Woodpecker mugs!

The Yellow-Billed Kingfisher, which I chose as my favourite this time, has been mailed to Alcheringa Gallery, also in Victoria. They are hoping for more exotic tropical birds for the Summer..

Finally here are two plates that I enjoyed painting with abstract designs. They’re the only pieces left in my studio now that I spent most of today packing up the Eclectic Gallery group of jugbirds and delivering them to Coquitlam Greyhound depot. Apparently they should be delivered tomorrow (under 10 lb box, $20+, free delivery to a business from Victoria depot).

Comments on the plates would be appreciated. I think I’ll do more.

Some weeks ago I received an email from Elaine Monds of Alcheringa Tribal Arts Gallery in Victoria. She was suggesting that if I were to make some jugbirds that resembled the crazy tropical birds of Papua New Guinea they’d look just fine alongside the carved and painted wooden birds made by the indigenous people there. She is having a Christmas show and wondered if I could get some to her by early November. Hah! Again, people seem to think I have lashings of finished work sitting on the shelves of my studio!

I agreed to try. I told Elaine that I’d start on some new work and see how many I could get finished in time. As I explained in my previous blog, it has been a quiet and sad time here but my family insisted that making new work was the best use of my time. I found that designing, throwing, assembling and painting these six jugbirds and several others has been such a comforting way to pass the days while I waited for the phone to ring.

My biggest jugbird is a Papuan Hornbill. I threw four sections and when they were somewhat stiffened I formed them into the feet, body and head and used the fourth cylinder to create the bill, casque and handle. I think that stage of fabricating is the most satisfying for me, as you can tell in this photo.

When he was safely and uniformly firmed up but still leather hard, not bone dry, I painted him with my coloured slips and a little orange underglaze. After the bisque firing he was finished with my clear glaze. To use this silly creature as a functional jug you fill it via the large spout/beak. In PNG he is also called a ‘Kokomo’.

The largest of the other jugbirds is painted to resemble a ‘Flame Bowerbird’. What wonderful colours these tropical birds are! I am including a Googled image for each new bird so that you can see what the real bird is like.

A really distinctively coloured bird is the ‘Black-Capped Lory’, similar to the Lorikeets we saw in Australia. I may like this little fellow best!

The Yellow-Billed Kingfisher gave me an excuse to use the cheerful orange again.

And the Red-Collared Honeyeater is boldly black with a contrasting red neck.

The sixth bird to join the little flock for this show is actually a resident of South America, the Scarlet Macaw. But Elaine said she’d like to show him too!

When I have an invitation for the show I’ll post it here, but basically it will be at Alcheringa Tribal Arts, on Fort Street in Victoria during December. Do let me know if you manage to see the show as I may not get over there. I’m very lucky that a friend travelling to Victoria on Saturday delivered the box of pots for me. Thank-you Iain!