Mariko McCrae's The Life and Times of Abigail Tackle By Amy Gogarty exotic coral infested lamp bases and other favorite sea things. With more than a nod February 16 to March 30, 2012 Craft Council of BC Gallery Granville Island, Vancouver You might want to don your sailor duds to ceramics history—her delectable dishes include slightly aberrant versions of Palissy ware, Sévres-inspired ice buckets and sauce boats and Ching Dynasty vases—McCrae has . ; ics to see Mariko McCrae’s exhibition at the created a veritable rogues gallery of enticing Craft House Gallery on Granville Island. objects. As noted in Abigail Tackle’s bio McCrae has conjured up a salty spinster, «fascination meet Fantasy, Fantasy meet Abigail Tackle, who dreams of living at sea full on Madness.” Working with mid-fre despite being planted firmly in the wheat porcelain and stoneware, McCrae hand-builds fields of rural Saskatchewan. To frame the her bulky forms with slabs and coils, adding exhibition, McCrae has written a short additional materials such as vintage crystal story detailing Abigail’s life and obsessive knobs post-firing. Her surface treatments passion, which can be read on her website at tend towards the graphic and include cheeky www.feedlotstudios.ca/abigail-tackle-an- texts and images of ships sunk by icebergs, upcoming-e. Tackle gleans her notions of Japanese mermaids, hunky sailor boys and ocean life from magazines, turning to clay to terrifying sea monsters. These are rendered create her “Shrine to the Muddy Mariner,” a in sgraffito with rubbed-in stains, coloured collection of vessels replete with giant sperm slips, underglazes, glazes, lustres, laser decals, whales, sea sponges, slithering snake platters, china paint and various “cold glazes.” All of North-West Ceramics Foundation Lecture Ship Sinkers, ice bucket by Mariko McCrae. this adds up to an inspiring presentation anda wonderfully playful take on her theme. @ Jim Robison: Circumnavigating the Current UK Ceramics Scene The North-West Ceramics Foundation is time he died in 2001, Ismay’s collection numbered some 3,500 pots BNWCE pleased to announce Jim Robison as their collected from over 500 potters including Bernard Leach, Lucie Rie, North-West Ceramics Foundation featured speaker at a free public lecture Hans Coper, William Staite Murray and Shoji Hamada. Friday, March 23 at 7 p.m. at Emily Carr Jim Robison's lecture will take place at 7 p.m., Friday, March University of Art + Design. All are welcome 23, in Room 245, North Building, Emily Carr University and encouraged to attend. (1399 Johnston Street, Granville Island, Vancouver). Mark your Jim Robison was born and raised in Independence, Miss. He holds _ calendars—we look forward to seeing you there. a BA with a major in Fine Arts from Graceland College, lowa and an Note: For more information, please see the website for the NWCF at MA in Sculpture and Ceramics from Eastern Michigan University. In © www.nwcef.ca or Jim Robison's website at www.boothhousegallery. 1972, he moved to Yorkshire, England, where he established the Booth — co.uk/index.htm. @ House Gallery and Ceramics Studio in 1975. Robison was Head of Ceramics at Leeds University College, Bretton Hall, from 1974 to 2001, and he has demonstrated and lectured extensively in areas of making, marketing, exhibitions and education. He is an elected Fellow of the British Craft Potters Association, former Chair of the Northern Potters Association and, since 1993, Master of Ceremonies at the Aberystwyth International Ceramics Festival in Wales. He is a frequent contributor to ceramics publications and the author of Large Scale Ceramics (2nd Edition published by the American Ceramic Society in 2005). He is a co-author with Jan Marsh of a new book, Slab Building Techniques, published in 2010 by A & C Black. In addition to discussing his own work, Robison will discuss the recent British Ceramics Biennale in Stoke-on-Trent, developments in ceramic education and the importance of collections and collectors. On this last point, he will discuss the Bill Ismay Collection at the York \) Art Gallery. Ismay was a Yorkshire librarian who assembled one of the 4 world's largest and best collections of twentieth-century ceramics in his small terraced house in Wakefield. He began collecting in 1955, POTTERS often cycling around the countryside to meet with local potters. By the GUILD of BRITISH COLUMBIA Potters Guild of BC Newsletter - March 2012 Tatton Garden Park Sculpture 2005 stoneware, 2 meters high by 4 meters long.