THE POTTERS GUILD OF BRITISH COLUMBIA 315 W. Cordova St. Vancouver 8.C. V6B 1E5 NEWSLETTER January 1976 HAPPY NEW YEAR to all of you; hope you have had some relaxation over the Holiday Season and are ready to resume your potting activities with re- newed vigor. GENERAL MEETING: Our next general meeting will be on January 21st, & pem. at our regular meeting place, the Unitarian Church at 49% and Gak Street. PROGRAM: Hiro Urakami will give a talk on oxidation glazing. He has de- vised a new simple calculation system which he is going to demanstrate. He tells me that you can use any glaze recipe and scale it up or down to suit your firing temperature. He has tried this with a Senior Citizen's group and they were able to grasp it very quickly. Sounds just like what we have all been waiting for !! I'm sure that all of you who saw Hiro's show at the House of Ceramics in September were excited to see such beautiful glaze effects accomplished in an electric kiln. Now we have an opportunity to learn how it was done. Don't miss this meeting or you'll be sorry. MEMBERSHIP FEES: Deadline for membership fees was Nov. 30% but was ex- tended to December 31st because of the mail strike. If you haven't paid your fees, please hurry as the new membership list is being compiled this month, We want this to be a complete list so make sure that your fees are in the hands of our secretary before the end of January. This is our mail- ing list which is very important to all of you. JOB OPPORTUNITIES: The Commonwealth Fund for Technical Co-operation has openings for Handicraft Advisors and/or Promotion Advisors at three lo- Cations: Sierra Leone, St. Kitts, and Malawi. Those interested in details cantact Jane Sradish, phone 987-3746. THE WESTERN POTTER is almost ready. We apologize for the delay, which is the result of tardy contributors. Fred Owen has agreed to assist Ruth Meechan who inrecent months has almost despaired of seeing this issue in print. HYCROFT: No doubt you are all aware that the sale at Hycroft, back after last year's absence, was a tremendous success. This was anall out effort and everyone pitched in, worked hard and had a lot of fun. It would be impossible to thank all the people who gave so generously of their time but there are a few who deserve mention because of the special tasks they performed so willingly. How many of you realise that Joan Ritchie handled all the publicity for the sale? Thisentailed months of work, endless inter- views, phone calls and letters. She did a marvellous job and we aremost grateful to her. Gene Sarker was chairman of the planning committee and did such an efficient job that it locked easy! Many thanks, Gene. Those muscle men ~ Michael Huyghe, Joe Mihalik, Andrew Cammidge, Art Polberg (who tcok a day off work) and Roger Stribley who worked loud and long erecting the display stands on Thursday and returned Saturday morning to dismantle them - pile them into Michael's truck and then Michael and his brother drove to Surrey and unloaded the lot to ne safely stored in a nice dry barn. Bravo, lads ! The pots were checked in by Lona Senior and avery capable crew. There were so many pets that by 5 o'clock we could hardly find room to move around there. This is a very responsible job and we heartily thank all who assisted, especially Johann Polberg who arrived at nine in the morning and worked until eight in the evening. A sales staff of over sixty people worked like beavers in groups of 10 or mare in two-hour shifts from 10 a.m. - 10 p.m. on Friday and coped magnificently with that crowd of eager customers. It was wall to wall people from the moment of opening till 1 p.m. They were so happy to be back at Hycroft that they spent money like it grew on trees. It was very exciting and this seems to be the essence of this event. That early rush has to be seen to be believed. Iris Smith was treasurer for the sale and as usual did a marvellous job. She anc Barbara Seach checked the sales books and counted money all day. I ‘ve never seen anyone who can handle such large sums of money with such aplomb as Iris can. We do appreciate you coming back year after year,Iris and our warmest thanks for a job well done. There will be a financial state- ment in the Western Fotter.