John G, who first suggested I make some penguin jugbirds, asked me to write a little explanation of my history of their creation. Here is a copy of that:

Gillian’s Jugbirds 

I have been making pots on the potter’s wheel ever since I first tried it out at College in Camberwell, London, in the early sixties. For a couple of decades after emigrating to Canada I taught pottery and made functional pots with stoneware clay. But, when I was middle-aged (!) I was accepted at Emily Carr University and studied there for three years, earning my BFA in Ceramics in 1994. In the summer before my last year there, Professor Walter Ostrem from Nova Scotia College of Art & Design taught an intensive 3-week course. In Nova Scotia red earthenware clay is much more commonly used, and Walter taught us all about European maiolica techniques which use earthenware. Then he introduced us to painting on red clay with coloured slips and my life changed! My grad show was all about slip-decorated functional earthenware.

Since then I have concentrated on working with a luscious red earthenware clay. It was formulated by another ECU prof, D’Arcy Margesson (who still makes pots in Gibsons BC) to be more sturdy and non-porous than regular earthenware. It is mixed and bagged for us in Tacoma, Washington. Greenbarn Pottery Supply in Surrey import it. 

After Art School I experimented with unusual shapes for my work, producing jugs with vast spouts etc. These evolved into my signature jugbirds which appeared in shows: ‘Ornithikos’ (Greek: bird-like) and ‘Rara Avis’ in 2003 and 2005. 

I’ve created bird-like jugs which resemble all sorts of birds from around the world; English ones for Primavera Gallery in Cambridge, UK, Ontario ones for Jonathon’s Gallery in London, Ont. and local birds for here, plus some non-specific but colourful make-believe birds. 

Penguins were requested some time ago, and finally I researched their shape and colours and produced these first ones.

They were wheel-thrown with D’Arcy’s Redart clay, I inserted the extruded beaks and attached handles, painted them with my own coloured slips, coated the bases with terra sigillata (the Romans coated their earthenware Samian Ware with this fine red clay before there was glaze) and bisque-fired them in my electric kiln. 

Then the pots were dipped in a commercial clear bright glaze and fired again. The jugbirds are food-safe and don’t leak. I recommend hand-washing them and not using a microwave. Earthenware, although colourful, isn’t as sturdy and vitrified as stoneware.

Side note: I haven’t been able to stay away from the stoneware I used before I was introduced to earthenware, so several times a year I throw some ware with grey stoneware clay and join other potters in group ‘atmospheric’ firings ie firing with gas so that flames and soda affect the surfaces and give a more traditional finish.