December

Hello Everyone,

The studio is still open and stocked up for great presents! Call ahead if you want to be sure there is someone here to let you in or just pop by and ring the doorbell and if we are home we can let you in the tiny gallery:) 

call for address and directions or google trial by fire pottery

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746

6893

the photo is of sunlight bouncing onto the wall from my beautiful pottery jug

Where do pots come from?

A conversation with a dear friend the other day has stuck in my head. They asked if I was quitting work to go on a maternity leave or if my husband was "making" me go back to work in the studio. Now, as a feminist, my husband has never tried to be 'in charge' of me or of our marriage. As a feminist, I do what I need and/or want to do and always have.
When I decided to become single with house payments in my early twenties, I realized that my crappy job wasn't going to cover my expenses. So I asked everyone who came into the gas station if they knew of a better job that I could apply for. It was the start of my oil-patch working life which paid very well and made me eligible for the loan that I needed to take over complete ownership of my house.
When I realized, in university, that my awful mark (B-) in statistics meant that I would likely not be able to get into medical school, I reassessed my life with hubby's help and decided to try to become a firefighter instead. This lead to years of physical fitness demands that would make an average person quake in their boots!
When Dave and I figured out that we would starve to death long before he finished his nursing degree, I decided to get a job driving a school bus which provided my class two license and was a paying job which left lots of time for working on my fitness in preparation for the CFD entrance exams. It also had the added bonus of paying for food!
On the other hand, when my soul fell out of my body, hubby was completely willing to scrape me up off the pavement, pack up the house, sell it, find a new one on the island, move us in, find a job here, and love me back to life. This re-finding my soul took at least a year, surely a year of hell for mr. who had to leave for work everyday and hope I would still exist when he got home.

This is the long way around to saying that pots flow out of me. I think about them and work through ideas all the time. I am also very aware of how the world works and I have agreed to pay for a certain portion of the costs of living that I consume. Pottery is both a calling and a job, it exists from passion and out of a need to provide for myself and my new family.

The last few days before santa

Today was a great day with a few groups of people calling and making a time to come and see the gallery for a few gifts and gift certificates for lessons. It is always nice to have people come to the studio as it means that all of my work is on display with the new lights that I finished installing and the customers can take their time to pick up each pot and find the perfect one for themselves or a friend.

(the photo is of some flowers sweet dave brought for me, put in a vase that i made and put them on the wheel for me to find when i got home)((ps YES my studio floor is almost always THAT clean, i love my lungs!!!))

It is always nice to give the customer a little break on the price as I am also not paying to attend a Show or Market and of course I don't have to haul my work around town and the Valley. The one light that is in the gallery is poor despite any bulb that I can find (of course the one I have is very efficient but the sconce seems to contain most of it) so I was moaning about it to a friend and she suggested that I string a plain set of white xmas lights around the shelves and turn them on as needed.

I bought a box of lights and gave it a try! What a difference the lights make to the pots, now they sparkle with little points of light and it was worth the hours of nailing those tiny nails into the shelf supports and then bending them all over to hold the lights away from sight. The strings of lights are all tucked away and only a few bulbs are showing which look nice too.

I wanted to update today to let people know that they can call me (([746-6893]))to make an appointment to view the TINY gallery or just stop by Hawkes Blvd (off Somenos Road) as I only leave the studio a few times a week.

See you soon, thanks for all the local purchases this year and I can't wait to start making my new work for 2011, onward and pot-ward! The mud kind not the combustible stuff, hahaha.

Philanthropy, Cobble Hill Cross Country Mountain Bike Race 2010

First, I would like to reference the photo here from a local mountain bike race that we held this weekend on Cobble Hill on Vancouver Island. I have been involved with this group of cyclists for as many years as I have been on this glorious rock/island. They have encouraged me up the mountains and laughed when I ride off into the bushes and fall over from my own uncontrollable laughter. They have also straightened my handle bars and checked for broken bones when I have really crashed hard and stayed down for a while!
I am honoured to create the four, first prize beer steins for this race, which I volounteer and really enjoy making. I also have had a few really cute comments about trying to win a stein during the rest of the year when I have met up with people who were at the race and will be returning. The reactions that I got from both the race organizers and the racers was uplifting and humbling, I can't wait to make some more work for the next race we hold.
Donating pottery, in this case, warms my heart and makes me smile in the studio on a sunny afternoon, as I am trying to use a syringe full of runny slip clay to turn a line and blob of clay into a bicycle shape that will still look like a bike after it is covered in glaze and fired twice.
Now that is a donation! It starts in my soul and I actually laughed out loud (yes, as always, I was alone in the studio at the time) making the steins and remembering the precious afternoons I have spent on the mountains: riding, watching Dave race, cleaning up after the races and leaning on the car after a good ride hashing over how I finally rode that bridge or log that I have been scared of for--ever!
This year's Cobble Hill Cross Country Mountain Bike Race drew out an elite crowd, some pictured above, the likes of Melanie McQuaid and Drew McKenzie and other famous racers including Wendy Simms and Norm Thibault who showed the adoring crowd what real mountain cyclists look like in action, not the bumping into logs and bouncing back and "oooofffffff" noises that we normally see (looking down, that is, hahahahahhaa).
The little bike club that I happily support is not only a non profit but allowed Dave and I to take the cheque for their donation to the food bank here in Duncan, and give it to the manager there and get a little sunshine in return from her, she must be 80 years old (oh to be so involved when I'm 80!!).

Pottery at the Farmer's Market

Photo by Sarah Hall

http://www.flickr.com/photos/31044915@N05/

Trial By Fire Pottery is starting back up with the Farmer's Market in Duncan, BC on the 20th of March. I will be at the market on saturdays from 9-2 selling my functional stoneware pottery to the public and the gallery is still open if you want to call for an appointment. I am very excited to see what people think of my new oval baking dishes, they are a 'stretch' for me from the round form but I think they look great.

I might be away from the Market for a few days this July if I am accepted into the summer workshop that I have applied for on Saltspring Island but I will let people know if I will be away. I would also like to thank Sarah for putting my website together for me, my photos pale alongside her masterpieces! (see the link to her flickr account)

One change at the Farmer's Market (i know the apostrophe is wrong in the name) is that I am now the President of the Market with a Board of 8 and an employee, so if I look a little tired it's just because I've lost a little sleep over things. Details will follow, trust me!