Last week Sheryl emailed me to set up an interview and the next day we chatted. She promised me that my story of when I started potting, why jugbirds? and how have I coped with Covid? would all be condensed to five minutes. In fact she aired 8 or 9 minutes and it sounded OK. I am honoured to have been the first BC potter to be interviewed for this new project. If you’d like to hear what I heard on Saturday click on this link to the podcast and slide along to about half way through the show.

https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-43-north-by-northwest

Sheryl starts her spot about ‘year of mugs’ at 7.45am in this link.

Now I must subscribe to the podcast so that I can listen to all the other potters she’ll be interviewing. It’ll be so interesting!

Meanwhile I have thrown some new mugs and plan to offer a wildly decorated mug like this one for the winner. It will have NXNW sgriffitoed into the pattern.

My segue takes me to ‘That Pottery Thing’ because the same Sheryl MacKay has agreed to be the host for a planned September fund-raising event.

Normally the North-West Ceramic Foundation would hold a Gala ‘Oven and Kiln’ dinner, auction and award presentation every three years. This much anticipated event obviously can’t be safely planned for this year, but the Foundation’s board has dreamed up an event to take its place, scheduled for September 30th 2021. Instead of inviting guests to purchase a dinner ticket we shall host a smaller reception (hosted by Sheryl) in the Mayer studio at 1000 Parker street. Collectors who cannot travel to this venue will be able to study an auction catalogue of ceramics, books and more and place their bids ahead of time, with final bids happening that evening. A public Zoom will allow you to see and bid on the donated artworks, observe short videos on community ceramic studios receiving NWCF support this year, and watch a presentation by this year’s winner of NWCF Mayer Wosk Award of Excellence.

As mentioned in my previous blog, the non-profit North-West Ceramic Foundation is primarily concerned with education in Ceramic Arts, offering free public lectures, scholarships to emerging Ceramics students and the above-mentioned awards for mid-career artists to have the freedom to take their work further.

Please click this link to the Foundation’s relevant web page to read a better description of NWCF initiatives.

https://www.nwcf.ca/that-pottery-thing/

In my next blog I’d like to show the work of Nicole Ponsart, one of the NWCF recent graduate award winners who is just completing her time as a Ceramics Artist-in-Residence at Medalta.

Yesterday, Monday June28th was the hottest day here, ever. Our thermometer reached 42C! Just as I remember from a June in Austin, Texas, it was impossible to go outside in the daytime. We closed curtains and windows on the sunny side of the house and retreated to the basement. With a fan my studio was liveable and we even ate cold supper at my pottery work table! The temp only dropped to 25C in the night .. fans kept us sane but barely sleeping. The air quality is decreasing, the lawn is turning brown, my garden is sad and we are worried about forest fires. Thanks for the concerned email sister Mary. We’ll be OK but can hardly wait for cooler days.  It is almost two weeks since our second Covid vaccination, social restrictions are being lifted and we are beginning to enjoy get-togethers with family and friends.

Here is a photo of most of the TriCity Potters who came to a June gathering in my garden last week. We were SO pleased to chat in person once more.

This first effort, on a plate and a jam-pot, has too much going on, perhaps because the overlying slip isn’t a strong enough contrast.

This next group has loosely applied black slip. I think the relaxed application doesn’t help and the contrast is too much.

On this little plate I like the colours and the more subtle top slip. The triangles underneath are echoed by the removed paper triangles.

For comparison I’m posting my earlier plate. I think I like this one and its matching yunomi the best. I’d welcome any opinions on which you like and that might give me some ideas for further explorations.

Apart from those I also made some other brightly painted pieces, without paper resist, just using slips and underglazes. .. maybe too much?

There were five sugar/jam-pots this time, all painted rather enthusiastically. My nephew and his family have chosen the most successful one, with random vertical paint strokes. The blue gives some nice depth.

And finally I did post my new big mug on Instagram and the Clay Buddies facebook page for Mugshot Monday. The terra sigillata on the handle feels smooth and comfortable and is a nice contrast to the shiny glazed body of the mug. It looked most cheerful on this sunny Thanksgiving Monday with Fall colours around.

Today’s task was to wrap up all the jugbirds for their trans-Atlantic migration. I managed to fit a dozen for Primavera into a suitable ‘carry-on’ sized box. Wish me luck with them.

I hope to be able to attend TriCity Potters’ AGM and meeting on Wednesday evening before Al drives me to YVR on Thursday for the overnight flight to Heathrow. I won’t write any more blogs until after I get back home at the end of the month.