Vijaya Morrison – Gillian McMillan — Rara Avis https://www.gillianmcmillan.com Mon, 15 Aug 2022 23:38:21 +0000 en-US hourly 1 Rainforest Pottery https://www.gillianmcmillan.com/blog/2022/08/15/rainforest-pottery/ https://www.gillianmcmillan.com/blog/2022/08/15/rainforest-pottery/#comments Mon, 15 Aug 2022 23:34:36 +0000 https://www.gillianmcmillan.com/?p=13450
McMillans outside Black Goose pub, over Rathtrevor Beach.

Alan and I spent the first ten days of August on Vancouver Island. For five days eight of us stayed in two cabins at Beach Acres Resort. With a playground, a pool, the pub and best of all, the enormous sandy beach below the cliff, it was a marvellous family holiday.  Below you can see the grandsons helping Granddad open his birthday cards. On the only cloudy day we drove to nearby Englishman River Falls provincial park.

Englishman River Falls

When the others left to take the ferry back to Vancouver Al and I set out for two days on the West Coast. Of course I’d noted that we could easily stop in to visit potter Vijaya Morrison at Rainforest Pottery on the outskirts of Parksville.

https://www.rainforestpottery.com/about/

As his other visitors left Vijaya greeted us warmly. I don’t think we have met before, except perhaps at a Fraser Valley Potters meeting, but I knew that he had lived in nearby Belcarra aeons ago. He was a keen student of Don Hutchinson at Langara College. For many years he operated a big pottery studio, school and showroom in Yarrow, in the Fraser Valley. But just in the last couple of years he and his wife, Justina Penner, chose to sell that property and look for a new home with a large workshop on Vancouver Island.

Vijaya Morrison in his showroom

It certainly looks as if they lucked out, and found a splendid log house on several acres, with, best of all, a number of huge warehouses. I believe they were built for a boat-building business. Vijaya plainly cannot say no to kilns, wheels and any other pottery equipment that he finds so, with all the bisqued ware, boxes and gear from the old Rainforest location, the warehouses are FULL!

work in progress
Morrison/Penner house, note old kick wheel in the garden!
Rainforest mugs in the showroom

Vijaya had just returned from a successful couple of days at the famous Filberg Festival, near Comox and was optimistic about the future of Rainforest Pottery in its new location on the Island. Thank you for showing us all around your splendid facilities Vijaya. I know you and Justina will welcome visitors, collectors and pottery students. We found the pottery with iPhone GPS at 504 Church Road, Parksville, V9P 2B2, and then headed west past Coombs to Port Alberni and Long Beach. 

View of the ocean from the Wild Pacific Trail

We stayed at the West Coast Motel, overlooking Ucluelet’s harbour. Our brief stay was spent re-visiting some of our favourite spots, with Al reminiscing about several summers as co-director of archaeological digs at several old village sites in Western Barkley Sound, near the entrance to Ucluelet Inlet. We walked part of Ucluelet’s Wild Pacific Trail and on Long Beach. I love the beach south of the now-closed Visitor Centre. Happy memories!

Our final two days were spent visiting friends who have moved from the Tri-Cities to Duncan. It was so good to maintain friendships even though the Salish Sea separates us for most of the year.

Now, besides rescuing a badly neglected garden I am looking forward to some productive days in my cool studio as the weather forecast calls for more hot days. Blogs about PoMoArts’ current shows and a long-awaited ‘Raid’ will appear soon. 

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