painting plates – Gillian McMillan — Rara Avis

February Raid

Gillian McMillan — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 05:53:11 +0000

That’s odd. The last Raid I hosted was on February 17th 2025. No wonder so many of the underglaze jar-lids were stuck on solidly! Renée, Karen, Monique and Cathy brought along rubber gloves and lid-opening gizmos to help out, when they came to paint plates once again on Monday.

This is the first time I’ve invited others to work in/out of my new little studio. I borrowed a folding table and a tarp (to protect the carpet) from my neighbours. Thank you Alison and Peter. I had a few bisque-fired slab plate blanks for the painters but had also made some more bigger ones so they were bone dry. We’ll have to be very careful transporting them to a likely kiln.

As always happens, these lovely artists brought along tasty contributions for our lunch. Alan and I are spoilt! Monique Fouquet baked another of her splendid spinach quiches, Cathy Busby rustled up a carrot/ginger salad and Renée Van Halm sourced a big baguette and yummy cheeses. Karen Henry had baked us a decadent fruit Clafoutis served with cream for our tea time!

My effort is slip-painting and paper resist on a D’Arcy clay slab plate. It will be much lighter when dry and fired. The bone dry plates are now resting on a towel in their moulds to protect them for travel.

As the Raiders left for their hour-long drive back to Vancouver Karen took this photo of us and the Attic Project print. She’ll show it to Eric so that he’ll know we’re still enjoying the Raids he and I started some two decades ago.

Now I shall attend TriCity Potters meeting tomorrow evening. I’ll see who will allow me a bisquing opportunity this time. Also I’ll ask if anybody has D’Arcy Redart clay I can buy. Only this week did I discover that the clay I adopted for my earthenware work in 1993 is no longer being imported by Greenbarn Pottery Supply. What can I do?

Potters Painting Plates

Gillian McMillan — Mon, 10 Feb 2025 02:16:03 +0000

During the last few weeks, while Alan has continued to edit his book collection and I try to sort and get rid of magazines and unused household things, I made time to bisque, glaze and fire those plates which were painted by TriCity Potters. I think the group will be pleased to see how bright the underglazes are when fired to earthenware temperatures. You might enjoy their varied decorations below.

You’ll see that most people chose to paint their bone-dry plates with underglazes, but some then went on to try some sgraffito, producing white drawing lines. Jade carefully drew a peacock. Her toddler Jet had a go.

Gay experimented with marbling the underglazes.

While my potter friends were happily painting I chose to coat my slightly dampened plate with a teal slip. Then I simply enjoyed myself ‘doodling’ shapes and my favourite parallel lines. I find that slips give a more opaque finish. This may be the last piece I finish while working in my current studio.

I mustn’t finish without reminding you about the interesting day I’ve planned for March 1st. Much of my collection of pieces by other potters will be displayed in my studio, waiting for reasonable offers on these second-hand pots to have a further life in your home! Some of my own pots will be for sale too.

In the mean time I look forward to a final Raid on Thursday, when a small group of Vancouver artists will decide on images for some bisqued plates I have here.

Raided Again!

Gillian McMillan — Tue, 26 Nov 2024 05:54:27 +0000

Four artists drove out from Vancouver this morning for our first Raid in quite a while. We were Renée van Halm, Monique Fouquet, Karen Henry and Cathy Busby. Sadly Eric isn’t steady enough these days to make the trip out. We missed him, and I’m putting this blog together quite quickly so that Karen can show him photos of our work day. He started this whole tradition of Raids, many years ago.

After coffee and catch-up we finally settled down for a productive, creative day. I think each person came prepared with a plan for her plate. There were bisqued and bone dry white clay plates for them to choose from, and I had made a few red earthenware plates for me.

As usual the potluck contributions made for a fine, balanced lunch. We started with a hearty vegetarian soup made by Cathy. Monique had once again baked a flaky pastry quiche with artichokes and Karen’s tasty salad complemented it. We enjoyed Renée’s home-baked carrot cake with our tea later on.

By late afternoon we were done. After we’d cleared up and had a cuppa, my four guests left for the darkening drive home. Once these plates have all been fired twice I’ll post pics of them and we’ll see how the underglaze layers work out. My piece is darker because I used slips and the red clay.

Even though Alan and I are considering moving to a townhouse reasonably soon the Raiders agreed that we must certainly find one with a studio for me, and a table big enough to continue to welcome Raiders. Wish us luck with that!