James Pottery – Gillian McMillan — Rara Avis https://www.gillianmcmillan.com Wed, 27 Sep 2023 04:10:17 +0000 en-US hourly 1 James Pottery & Islands https://www.gillianmcmillan.com/blog/2023/09/26/james-pottery-islands/ https://www.gillianmcmillan.com/blog/2023/09/26/james-pottery-islands/#comments Wed, 27 Sep 2023 04:05:31 +0000 https://www.gillianmcmillan.com/?p=14964

An invitation to a wedding celebration gave us a fine excuse to spend several days on two islands. The young couple have chosen to make their home on Vancouver Island, but organized a party weekend for their guests at the much-loved Heriot Bay Inn on Quadra Island. 

Alan and I checked ourselves in to the High Point ‘Resort’ just after arriving on the ferry from Campbell River. Around the building we found marvellous driftwood sculptures of dinosaurs, a cartoon character and local animals by Alex Witcombe. There is no shortage of driftwood along the island’s shores. https://driftedcreationsart.ca/public-art/

driftwood eagle

We spent Saturday reacquainting ourselves with this delightful Gulf Island, walking the Rebecca Spit trail, visiting Yaculta village and finally finding James Pottery. Of course I had planned this and was pleased to discover that Martha and I had met many years ago, at a Potters Guild of BC sale on Granville Island.

Cortez Island ferry arriving at Heriot Bay dock
view from Rebecca Spit towards Cortez Island. Driftwood galore!

Martha was happy to show us around the big studio and discuss work in progress, the history of their home and studio, and  ceramics life in BC. Gordon was out preparing for the Saturday evening gig of his four-person band GO DOG GO, at, believe it or not, the Heriot Bay Inn where we were headed for the wedding party! Below are snapshots of our James Pottery visit. We ran out of time to go upstairs and see Gordon’s print-making studio so we shall certainly have to make a return visit. Do check their website. https://www.jamespottery.com/about

James studio and garden entrance
Martha James
Al & Martha in the well-lit studio. You can see the ocean from here.
leaded-glass entrance door
Gordon James sculptures
a flock of birds under way
and lots of bisque ware waiting for glaze

Martha explained that they have decided not to use the propane-fired reduction kiln any more, for environmental reasons, and are in the process of switching all of their work to electric cone 6. They are lucky to have each other, to work on this research together. Martha was pleased that I couldn’t tell which firing had been used for the current work in their gallery.. all electric.

We had a fine evening in the Heriot Bay dining room with all the wedding guests, with buffet tacos, drinks, cake and pies, then speeches and dancing. Later on I confess that some of us did wander through to the pub and enjoy the jolly music of the local band GO DOG GO! It all made for an unusual and really fun evening. Thank you Ian and Johanna for including us in your celebration.

Gordon is playing his saxophone, Martha's brother is singing.

Al and I decided not to join the Sunday traffic heading back to the Lower Mainland and instead had booked ourselves for a further two nights away, and drove across Vancouver Island to TinWis Resort in Tofino. It rained hard when we arrived but we were lucky to have a beautifully sunny Monday to walk nostalgically along McKenzie and Chesterman Beaches. Alan has spent many archaeological summers on the west coast, exploring Long Beach on the weekends.

the south end of McKenzie Beach
TinWis Resort

We generally can’t let a summer go by without spending some time on the glorious wild Pacific beaches. That evening we were lucky to get a patio table at the relocated Shelter restaurant and had a fine view of Meares Island, Opitsaht village, and Tofino harbour with a float plane landing. 

Tofino Harbour

The next day the heavens opened and rain followed us all the way home, so our drive around Ucluelet was brief! I was interested to see the fine Kennedy Lake road reconstruction, and see how the Cameron Lake fire disruption has affected the route, but the weather kept us driving for the ferry home.

I’ve spent every spare hour this week painting a small flock of jugbirds, preparing for my next adventure. More on that later..

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