WINTER SUMMATION

Well, it will be an early spring in a couple of days- winter has passed in a bizarre hardly any snow kind of way and the snow-pack water situation looks pretty bad for fire season. I do not have any pots for a spring firing however, so I won't be risking any torch-off of Siver Star mountain... though it could use one! I have been able to drive up to the cabin and kiln a month earlier than usual because of the lack of snow and warm weather. So I plan to fire in the fall !! I am thinking to have an "open cabin" drop-in workshop this summer for people to make pots...if any reader is interested let me know....

I have been going through old pictures lately ... here is an organic carrot grown
here in Vernon B.C.
It is cold- ice-lantern making weather- Sue is working on her
english assignments, Jasper is home with a sick stomach,I am putzing about
doing housework and making a new birdhouse for the dining room.
No pots yet- the studio can be made warm enough but there always seems to
be something alse to do- I guess it is not my straight ahead focus. Today I began reading about the life and death of Crazy Horse - trying to figure in where my ancestors were in around those times...also a book about the Metis, the marriages of Hudson Bay workers with the Native woman so many years ago (again, twice in my family tree).
There have been christmas concerts of the kids and shopping about for the gifts requested by them...with me grudgingly participating. I always struggle with this season.
I read a lot of Christopher Alexanders books this autumn- amazing books on building and designing in "a living way". Very influential to me. There is a move to design the future of Vernons downtown district and I would like to participate but think my thoughts and process would be too radical to be of assistance.. though I tried to talk it up a bit with the ones in charge of the process a few weeks back.
I have to drain and distribute the ice lanterns soon- started a dozen the other night with the kids helping in a minus 20 spell- they have been out for a few days now and are about right.
I will post pics when I get a camera handy.. I broke our camera this fall when I was bumped and dropped it....oops!
Probably why I am going thru old pictures!

AXEL EBRING-VERNON POTTER

Well, Here is a photo of Axel Ebring- British Columbia's first production potter. He came from a town calledUppsala-in Sweden -when he "was just so high" ( I'm assuming he meant how tall he was) and began making pottery, which he had learned in Sweden.
He started up at Notch Hill area and then moved here to Vernon where he lived at the west end of what is now called "POTTERY ROAD"... after him of course. The road itself cuts through the local glacial earthenware clay- a gray- green gumbo that takes a lot of grog to bring to a usable state.
I made some pots years ago with this clay, a couple survive. Burt Cohen tried for quite some time to do so ... after some time he switched. Problems with scummy glazes and lime pops I suppose.
But it was fun trying, and I thjink I will do so again with the children at Beairsto this year.And we plan to do a mural of this photograph for the halls. When Alex died he left his money to crippled children, I have readthis in an article written by Bob Kingsmill some years ago.
Alex's grave is in the old part of the Pleasany Valley cemetary- in amongst the tall Ponderosa Pines. It is an unmarked grave as of yet.
I used to park there with my children sleeping in the car-and we gathered pine cones together when they woke up.
Alex died when I was born- 1954
His pottery is still around- in houses and the Vernon museum has quite a collection.

to be continued...

It has been awhile since I have written anythig- I even forgot my passwords and etc's..so I have to practise at this again and will get at it

SNOW LOAD

Time for the winter hike to the cabin and kiln-the driveway was ice under a few inches of snow,but we got up to the fork and walked the rest.
We had fun just walking,the snow was aver our knees and we kept breaking thru the crust. (Well,I had snow shoes on...)
The tarp shed has not come down much more than before, the "mushroon of tubes and satellite dish had fallen over, the front door was blocked by the roof load coming down and the front sliding doors were just barely openable half way- as the house has changed shape somewhat...
(note to self-the posts need to be replaced)
But it was fine to get out and get some fresgh air and see the cabin, it is a beautifull place... we were getting cabin fever in town!
Now comes more cold and then mud season!
Years ago I used to go to the family cabin at chestermere lake in the winter...to check on it... drive on the ice, get stuck in the snow, hang out with grandma Dowler...see the lake low -watch the ice move in the spring.. see it slowly slide up the rocks at the south end...waiting for summer to come.

DRUM MAKING

Someone asked me awhile back why I had not made pottery for many years, likebetween1991 and 2008! For a while, I couldn't really remember actually- but then it came back to me...
I had gotten into music . I had already been studying Sarod and Tabla..but when I moved to Vernon I became involved in the wave of drummers that had begun coming to give workshops. Dido from vancouver, David Thiaw as well. It came naturally to me, and I enjoyed it for many years..and made a few drums and other instruments as well.
I drummed for dance classes in Vernon and Calgary too,and lots of drum circles. After awhile I became interested in cello and slide guitar. .. as I wanted more tonality and melody.
The other day I wanted to get a drum for the kids, and I found an unused Djembe shell that I sanded up and varnished. Then I put a new head on, a thin see-through one ( I think it was a spare Sarod head I had ) and it sounds great.
I love making things! CRAFTIVISM!
The last 2 days I drummed with the kids classes at school,that was fun- they have a great bunch of drums but need to learn how to use them.
I remember my first set of drums was some kind of cardboard and paper kit a relative had passed along to me..and then my mom had put me into a bagpipe band,playing the tenor tom drum in parades around Alberta
and the Okanagan!

STARK INSTITUTE OF PRESEARCH

Well, I have been re-arranging shelves and making new ones.... there was a grey of sunshine the other day, and as the real warm stuff shone on some of the pots from last fall ,it was like seeing them for the first time. It has been grey valley fog for weeks.
And I discovered that I could salvage a lot of the Anagamas ' slightly underfired work by refiring, sometimes with a glaze added.
This has been good by and large- a couple pieces I wish I had left as they were...but many tea-bowls have been saved for future dispersion....
It is time to get back to wet work and making-just have to clear out a space on the table...I need a "store-room", which for the moment will be apple boxes in the loft. Whether I am ready for the spring firing is always a bit iffy... but I still have hope.
Right now I am learning to use a" knitting knobby" so I can show my daughter...