Now the Guild has purchased it's own building and has created The London Clay Arts Centre on Dundas Street in downtown London. It has been almost a year in renovation and now we have moved in. It's still a bit rough mind you, the workmen are still doing their excellent work and the flow of the place has still to be established, but the vision of the committee is finally coming to fruition, and it is wonderful. 

       This is truly an incredible feat for the guild. to learn more and see pictures go here:

http://londonpottersguild.org/ and click on the link to see pics of the progress.

I'm proud to belong to this organization.

     In April of last year I was asked to be the artist of the month at Artopia and I presented "Letters from the Garden" and I think it went off pretty well. Corrinne and Paul set it up and it looked great! The premise was based on what some parts of the garden would write to other parts of the garden if they could. For example there were alot of love letters to Bee...."come back bee we miss you, our flowers will soon be in bloom and we miss the sound of your beeting wings..." etc etc. A get well card from the vegetables to Bee 'cause they have heard that he has had a bad attack of allergies. A cease and desist letter from P. Mantis and Assts. to Lady Bug to stop her aggression toward the Aphids. A thank you letter from the Compost Collective, local communal living at it's finest. (bunch of Socialists...). At the end of every letter was an admonition not to piss off the faries, and so I had to come up with a bunch of "Thug" faries that one obviously didn't want to piss off! The show was composed mostly of my regular production work of course, but it was fun to work with a theme in mind. The pots had the regular and romantic interpretation of what "faries at the bottom of the garden" mean to us but the bad faries are just fun. I had fun with the narrative of the garden and it's something I would like to explore more.

Farie Vase

Back of one of the hanging thug faries

This one has a tattoo of "Mom" on his arm.

Ceramic action figures

Here's some pics of the Almont Guild:

The lovely Susan! My wonderful host!

The Almont Potters Guild

Industrious Participants!

A plate I made for Demonstration...

Happy with the results!
 

     Right now I'm in the middle of moving my own studio. yes... I'm losing my mancave....My Mother is moving to a great apartment in a great building here in London and I am having to move out of my studio space in her garage. I'm gonna miss the old studio. I've been standing there trying to absorb the memory of it in the present and still reflecting on the past. The sound of the train going by, the chicadees, the Raku parties, all the crimes against aesthetics that I have committed there....I did a lot of growing up there. While I didn't spend my childhood there by any means, it is the place where I matured as an artist, healed from my divorce, raised my daughter as best I could. Surrounded by walnut trees and water. It's funny how one does get attached to a place. It will be interesting to see how the change in geography affects the work, and I won't have the constant interruptions by my dear old Mum to contend with; although, part of me will miss that too. She makes good brownies. 

     With all that in mind I'm looking toward the future and have found out that I can indeed build a small outbuilding on this property! There are some restrictions of course but they're pretty reasonable, less stringent than I thought they'd be actually!

the house

The studio

I just have to tell you about “Robbie and Pat’s Clay Camp” in Fonthill, Ontario. I was invited to present a two day workshop on slip decorating. 

Inside the studio

     On day one we covered traditional slip decorating techniques including brushing, hakame, mishima or slip inlay, paper resist, and wet ground work like feathering and mocha diffusion.

     Day two was all about slip transfers. We started with a mono print (which is always fun) and then moved onto making  transfer prints using blocks and rubber stamps. Before another awsome lunch we burned a silkscreen and let it dry in the sun while we ate. After printing out the screen I made a keepsake plate for Robbie and Larry.

Slip transfer monoprint fired in Raku. This is something that I think will get me inspired about Raku again.

Barrel fired. I like the marks left by the salt!

Shadow crackle looks good with slip transfers!

Ferric Chloride over clear crackle glaze. thank you for the inspiration Shirly Clifford!

Ferric chloride sprayed on the heated terra sigged pot and then augmented with horsehair. I like this!

This was a saggar fired piece that really turned my crank!

The students and the staff at St Clair. College in Chatham were awsome. We had great results and I'm looking forward to next years session!

     I would like to say that I feel very fortunate to be doing what I'm doing.  Making stuff, teaching, doing workshops, and generally helping other people pursue their creative projects. I can only express my opinion, of course, but if I can help I try to. I spend alot of time listening to the CBC while I work and so often I hear of the truly dreadful things that people do that I feel that if I can in some small way make my section of the world a better place, then I have an obligation to do so. Anyway, I invite your questions and comments. Cheers!