the cost warrants installation.

Fer the past number of months we have been developing
statistics on the average sales in the Gallery according to kind
and volume of work as a means of assisting artists to gauge the
market potential of their works. Atthe AGM it was suggested that
this information might be useful te the general membership. The
following information is for the month of April 1995. Greater
detall, number of vases, bowls, teapots, etc. can be obtained by
contacting me at the guild offices. In April, 42 of the 77 artists
having work in the Gallery had sales of thee work

April 1995 Gallery Sales

Functional Ware: Total Number of pieces: 233
Average Value: $35.48

Figurative Work: Total Number of pieces: 41
Average Value: $161.93
Raku Work: Total number of pieces: 2
Average value: $75.00

Through the kindness of Enid Damer, we have obtained two
pieces made by the early Vernon potter, Axel Ebring. These will
ge on display in the Gallery for the remainder of 1895 after which
thay will be relocated to the Vernon Museum permanent
collection, tt is my hope that by creating as many of these kinds
of opportunities we can expand knowledge of the bong tradition of
pottery making in B.C. and stimulate greater interest in its
future.

Jan Krueger

FOUNDER'S
MEECHAN

| started out In pottery in a very modest way - VER'Y modest |
was tied down with a small gift shop and a small daughter, The
daughter was very good and business was very bad so | had time
on my hands. | had tried enamelling on copper but | had to send
to Ontario or the States for enamel and never seemed to get the
kind | wanted; and enamel! takes only two minutes to fire and
inevitably a customer came in the moment | put a piéce into the
kiln. But there's the crucial word - | had a kiln, miniature by
pottery standards but not one of those little round deals with a
glass down cover. It was a proper kiln made of insulating bricks,
side loading about 4" high, 4" wide and 9" deep.

CORNER- RUTH

| nagged my husband into going to a brick yard and getting me a
pailful of clay, and set to work. | made some of the most god -
awful pots you ever saw, and everything with @ diameter of 3°
warped in the kiln because it was too close to the elements on the
two sides and there were no elements on the front of the back. |
started making ceramic jewelery which sold very well,

Then a friend persuaded me to go to night school. Reg Dixon
was teaching at the Art School. The pottery class had the whole
basement of the old Art School building which, as | remember it
was located just east of the present building, Both teacher and
facilities were a vast Improvement over a few years previous
when it wasn attic location with a teacher who had the students

make a template with which to smooth and refine ther
handmade pots to a dime-store shape and texture,

We had quite a few kick wheels, three cantankerous motorized
wheels and @ big old electric kiln which fired to cone 8. Nobody
wees selling pugged clay so we mixed our own from a mixture of
Fairey’s dry powdered pottery clay and Bear Creek red
earthenware clay. It was beaten up to 4 thick slip with a
propeller - like gadget on the end of @ shaft turned by an electric
motor, and dried to more or less the night consistency in big

plaster bats.

| spant two winters going to night school one night a week, but
somevhere in the middie of that time Reg lent ma a wheel made

y from an old treadle sewing machine, and | spent every evening

happily mucking up balls of clay. Before too bong | was proficient
enough that | just had to have a kiln. Reg drew me a sketch in
pencil on a scrap of paper and | built myself one. | used the
wrong insulating bricks and had to add a layer of insulation
around it but it worked well enough to reach earthenware

4 temperature. | dug clay where ever | found a hole, be it for a
| sewer, road drainage or a new bullding.

| When | first started looking for supplies Dave Lambert was the

only source, but buy the time | had my kiln build Jean and Stan
Clarke had opened a supply shop away out on 4ist, | was on
East Hastings in Burnaby. And about that time Fairey's started

selling pugged clay.

[Ruth Meechan's pot fram the 25th anniversary show]

And | was going to meetings of an exciting new organization, ihe
B.C. Potters Guild.

One of our night school assignments was to make a hump mold
and | made one with a West Coast Indien design carved into if.
Weird are the ways of fate. The mold was changed and refined
litte, Reg suggested dry-brushing manganese across the
unfired glaze to bring out the design and | produced a few dishes
from it. | took some to the Sunday artist's display in Stanioy
Park, and, what do you know, a store wanted te buy them. It
was a little store out on Kingsway and Clarke Drive, and, as far
as | know, the only store in Vancouver handling crafts.

| was in the Indian dish business, which grew and graw umiil |
was sick of the sight or thought of Indian dishes. Same eight
years later (after we moved to Haney) | sold the business to
Gene Barker who is still selling Indian dishes by the the
thousands.

in the meantime, when | was just getting going in Indian dishes,
| had a phone call from Stan Clarke to tell me that their supply
business was up for sale. “And you're just the gal to take It
over,” he said, being a good salesman. Se, against al’ reason