During the latter part of March I was mainly concentrating on throwing some stoneware pieces for the TriCity Potters’ upcoming group soda firing but I found an afternoon to roll out some more slab plates and platters. Mina and friends were hoping for another Raid so I filled my kiln with said plates and my slowly accumulating earthenware jugbirds and some bowls for a bisque firing.

Mina Totino, Michelle Normoyle, Tamara Mills and Kate Metten came out on Thursday. Eric is coming separately for a mini-Raid on Monday. He will bring out Kate Bellringer and we three will discuss plans for a show of Raiders’ work in the summer. She will become an honorary Raider as she has asked to paint a plate as well.

Thursday turned out not to be the forecast showery April day so my guests had a bright day to paint.. all day, until almost 7pm! Alan had errands to do so missed the wonderfully creative lunch, and afternoon tea.

My photos show the pretty green salad that Mina arranged on an Eric Metcalfe platter (that he’d given to Alan and me in 1995!) plus glorious cheeses and bread, a home-made batch of cornbread by Tamara, tasty roll-ups from Kate and delicious corn and squash chowder by Michelle. Somehow we found an appetite for a Mina cake-with-marmalade with our revivifying tea later on.

While the Raiders worked in concentrating silence for much of the time I was pleased to get the last two stoneware bowls trimmed and all of the soda-destined pieces sprayed. It was good to get those into the kiln on Friday and bisque-fired last night. The plates from Thursday will be bisque-fired after Eric and Kate B have been here on Monday.

Eric, Kate, Mina and Philippe chose which shape and size of plates they’d like to work with for the day, grabbed a cup of coffee or tea and one or two of my flapjacks (English oatmeal, butter, golden syrup and brown sugar sinfulnesses) and settled down at our work table. Seeing that four of us had attended the interesting conversation between Stan Douglas and George Lewis about Stan’s Parisian jazz video from 1992 at the Western Front last Saturday, Mina brought out a selection of splendid jazz pieces to hear. It made for a pleasing accompaniment to our working.

Kate settled down to work diligently all day and completed her chosen pieces. They are very carefully drawn and painted. Eric works in a similar way, using a ruler to plot out where he’ll put the arrangement of just two or three colours. Mina chose a large and two medium round plates and paints the whole surface before applying contrasting colours over that. She doesn’t pre-plan the shapes but considers which colours work together. And Philippe came fully prepared for the day with several works on paper and circular cut-outs to place over them to select the day’s images. As is his wont he used wax resist between layers of underglaze – so I needed to do a second bisque firing to burn out said wax. I brush off the loose flakes and rinse the plate before applying glaze.

Marlene joined us just before lunch so we were seven for another edition of the potluck Raiders’ feast. She spent the afternoon painting a peaceful ocean on a large oval platter.

Several of the group had gone to the trouble of preparing their contribution the night before or that morning. Philippe had made what may have been ‘Pão de Queijo’ using tapioca flour and cheese and froze them. His had a firm outer layer with melty cheese inside. We baked them just before we sampled them. He also made a salad of mangoes, cucumber and pink onions. Mina cooked up a really tasty Wintery soup which I think contained squash, cream and flavourful seasonings and topped with chopped grapes and parsley. We ate it with fresh French bread and sliced ham that Eric brought and baked, stuffed potato skins from Marlene. Kate baked some yummy date and berry oatmeal squares and also brought baba ganoush. Thank you all for going the extra mile to prepare treats for us all.

Over lunch we discussed the idea of putting together a Raiders’ cookbook. What do you think? We could show the food on our plates.

I’ve included the first two Rhytons that I have made for a planned collaboration with Eric. He has now painted them in his idiosyncratic style and I’ll fire them along with this group of plates.

When they all left for Vancouver after tea, I assembled their work to take a photo. I painted plates along with them this day, finishing one and starting another. Mine are made with red clay and I prefer using coloured slips on leather hard rather than underglazes on bone dry or bisqued white clay. I completed the second plate yesterday, making an effort to avoid angular shapes and wound up with a swirly design. My two won’t be fired with the other plates as they’re already bisqued. So now it’s time to get really productive Gillian and fill that kiln again.

That evening was TriCity Potters’ monthly meeting so I simply delivered my six colourful bowls (and some by Sue Griese) to Hannah Diamond. She was collecting our contributions for an upcoming fundraiser Gogos dinner in Burnaby. Now I hear that I won a ticket  – and it’s a sold-out event! Here is a photo of our club’s donated bowls. Well done all. Sorry I didn’t stay for the rest of the meeting – there’s only so much fun I can have in one day!

Pierre Coupey drove here from West Vancouver and Mina Totino, Kate Metten, Eric Metcalfe and Tamara Mills came from Vancouver. As conversation flowed each person settled right into their work. It’s so interesting to see how very different their processes are. I should have left a couple of plates leather hard for Pierre as he wants to work with sgraffito and wax resist so I must remember that for his next visit. But the group are generally pleased to have stronger bisqued ware to paint on.

Eric brought a couple of plates that he’d worked on at home, and selected a slightly bigger one for the day’s work.

As usual the lunch contributions were splendid. Eric had spent much of the previous day preparing a big batch of ‘Canadienne’ split pea and ham soup, which was delicious. Mina produced a home-made polenta and served it with a rich mushroom sauce, and our Winter meal was completed with baguettes, dolmathes, cheeses and pate. Pierre sent a photo of the spread.

Tamara had baked a sweet loaf which included delicious halva so we had some slices of that with our afternoon tea! What a great tradition we seem to have started. Raids have been happening for about eight years now.

I took a photo of the day’s plate paintings. Now, on Friday, I have glazed them all and filled my kiln for a glaze firing. Top priority is the tiles from Semiahmoo potters and the nine jugbirds of mine so not all the Raiders work is in this firing. But, never fear, all will be fired asap and I’ll post photos of the finished pieces.