Happy New Year to all. I spent the first day of 2017 in my studio, I threw mugs while looking out at the snow while this fellow watched me. A great day to be a potter!
 
I thought a great deal about artistic integrity today. I don’t think personal integrity and artistic integrity are separate things but one in the same. Words like “well, someone will buy it...” or “good enough” just don’t cut it with me. I make the best piece I can make why bother otherwise. Not everything that comes out of my kiln is good enough to sell. Broken or cracked pieces or vessels with glaze imperfections do not make it to the sale....a hammer is sometimes just as useful a tool as a fettling knife. As a lovely potter once told me ..... “Momma does not let the ugly ones live.” 

My pottery is sometimes very functional and sometimes........ Just fun.

Well I have not been doing anything in the studio except pugging clay all week. With no wheel to use at the Gathering Place and not getting to the wheel at home I made up for it today...not in number of pots but in size. Today I threw some BFP's. Big Freaking Pots.......these platters are 15 inches across...with 12% clay shrinkage taken into account they should be still about 13.5 inches when glaze fired....great surface to play with. Think I might stamp the names of my brothers family on one of the bowls as a gift.

Kiln loaded and turned on. Looking so forward to unloading on Monday morning......!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ninna and I began our Artist in Residence this week (we call it "AIR") at the Gathering Place in Leigh Square Port Coquitlam. I have to admit I needed a nap when I got home on both Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons....it was a bit intense and a different pace and energy level was required compared to potting at home. Friday night was our opening reception and it was very well attended. I would just like to thank every one who attended. I look forward to seeing you in the coming weeks.

I have been thinking about writing a blog for some time now and thought now would be a great time. It is the eve of my first Vcon Show and I have been working on various mask designs for over 6 months in preparation for the event. It has been a journey of discovery - the creative variation in my masks styles has exploded!!!!!!!!
I am not a science fiction person so learning a bit about the genera has proved to be fun. My husband and I watched Defenders of the Galaxy, About Time, old Star Wars reruns, etc. and I was sweeping the internet for images and ideas. This years convention theme = Time Travel. I wanted to be in keeping with the theme with some of my pieces however I found this to be a challenge. Time Travel: "is the science fiction concept in which people are able to move backwards into the past or forwards into the future." I majored in Archeology in University, I love historically correct novels (Dianna Gabaldon to name just one) and visiting castles when in Europe, cave dwellings in the southwest and ceremonial sites in Meso-America and the South Pacific. As a result many of my masks are inspired by events or images from traveling back in time.  Once of my creations, Uncle Desmond, was named after the character in the movie "About Time" while other inspiration came from gargoyles and plague masks of Europe in the 1600's. I developed new glazes for the gargoyles and raku fired the plague masks to add to their aura of darkness and mystery. The names of the pieces also took some work and I have my sister-in-law Jennifer in Montreal to thank for coming up with most of them. Loki is the Norse God of mischief, Doctor De Lorne is named after the doctor to Louis the Xlll during the plague and Lung'a' Pov is Klingonese for Dragon. After months of work the masks are packed and ready to be set up tonight. I think I will reward myself with a bit of time in the studio glazing pieces that came out of the bisc firing yesterday.

Meet Uncle Desmond.

Lung'a' Pov

Doctor De Lorne I presume ........................