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POTTERS

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2010 Canadian Clay Symposium

| m pression S By Keith Rice-Jones

Celia and I had a bit of a unique perspective as we were hosting both
Jack Troy from the U.S.A. and Robert Barron from Australia for both
the symposium and their woodfiring workshop the following week.
Getting them both out of the house on time was a bit like herding
cats! Both are such lovely people and, as well as doing individual
presentations, their joint session had a capacity crowd to watch them
throwing small and large pieces peppered with wit, wisdom and much
to take away and chew on later.

‘There is so much going on in a day like this that it is difficult to get
around to everything, especially when there is so much catching up to
do with old friends and with making new ones.

Gailan Ngan, shared the secrets of her family, philosophy and
wobble pots, and Alywn O'Brian shared techniques of silk screening
and printing images on her multi-layered work. Meanwhile, Don

2010 Canadian Clay Symposium

Words of Wisdom
By Jackie Frioud

In the afternoon, I spent both sessions with Joan Bruneau. She was
working on several pieces in different stages of assembly and I just
had to stay to see how she was going to make that oval lid fit the
oval teapot. In the meantime, I wrote down a few one-liner words of
wisdom that Pll share with you in case you were busy at one of the
many other events (these are paraphrased of course):

“If something is underpriced, people aren't going to value it as
much.”

“Sometimes your work really requires a growth spurt and you have
to take risks to achieve that.”

“Really consider the interior space when throwing — the dynamic
volume. Consider the wall of the pot as a stretched skin.” (Presenter
Alwyn O'Brien also referred to this, saying that you should touch the
inside of the pot last—something she'd learned from Julia Galloway.)

Joan then threw a cylinder to show us how to convey volume in a
straight-sided pot. She slowed down the wheel after pulling the sides
up and made her fingers move up the pot faster than the wheel was
turning. She encouraged us to experiment with the speed of the wheel
in relation to the speed of the pull. She used a rib on the inside and
fingers on the outside to stretch out the clay. Before she finished her
final ribbing, she pinched the rim slightly upward in four places and
smoothed it. She said “ think of the rim asa line rather than a rim.”
It was a great lesson in how subtle changes can really add life to a pot.

Joan is a big fan of Clary Illian and highly recommended her book
A Potter's Workbook. (See Patty Osborne's review of the book in the
October 2008 Potters Guild of BC newsletter).

Joan’s recipe for Spooze (the slip she uses for attaching)
* powdered clay

* vinegar

* soda ash (1 tsp per cup)

* corn starch

Finally, Joan finished that oval lid and I'm looking forward to
trying out her technique, along with everything else I learned at the

symposium that day.

Pots by Robert Barron.

Hutchinson, in splendid isolation out in Mather’s House, held a rapt
audience spinning pots, stories and philosophy and Peter Powning
impressed with the magic of his New Brunswick studio and the range
and scale of his multi-faceted work.

Glaze doctor D'Arcy Margesson made a house call. Robert Barron,
Jack Troy, Peter Powning and Les Manning made up a great panel
with moderator Amy Gogarty for the discussion on aesthetics, the
theme of the symposium. Aesthetics or esthetics: exploring meanings,
negotiating the minefields of “art speak” and personal interpretations
left us all with some answers but also with more pondering. This is
what is so stimulating with these panels, getting a balance of consensus
and individual ideas from the experts.

The mug wall was a big draw and a brilliant new innovation was
having Les Manning do a critique of the items in the Roadshow. The
lunch was excellent and, altogether, if you weren't there you missed a
great day. Make sure you sign up early next time!

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Potters Guild of BC Newsletter - April 2010

Photo by Andrea Maitland