Canadian Clay Symposium 2013 re-cap

The Canadian Clay Symposium happens every 3 years at the Shadbolt Center for the Arts in Burnaby, BC, which is conveniently close to where I live.  The Symposium isn't huge- there are usually around 8 or 9 presenters, with the venue only holding about 350 people.  With the event selling out this year it felt like a good crowd of people, although I think in reality, most of the people coming to the conference hail from somewhere in BC (which makes me wonder why it's name includes all of Canada). This was my 3rd Symposium attendance so I was used to the fast pace of trying to see as much as possible in a day kind of feeling. 

This year I got the volunteer job of photographer for the day and spent most of my time trying to capture the best of the presentations and workshops.  I didn't really sit in for a whole entire workshop as I wanted to be sure I was able to take enough photos of all the workshops, so I won't be posting on each participant as I have in the past.  I was really glad to have something to do, as I'm not as interested in how other people make their work, while I am much more interested in how they make their living today and why they make the work that they do.  I think for many of the presenters, their work in clay has spanned 20-50 years, which is pretty incredible!  Each of the ceramic artists that were presenting had work that stood out as being their own, with really specific ways of making work, so it was lovely to see them at work.

For a 1 day conference, this event is pretty good bang for your buck.  The presenter line-up was quite good, although they ended up having to change in 3 of the original presenters.  I would have really enjoyed seeing Linda Arbuckle at work...that being said, the sub-ins did a really amazing job of bringing a wealth of knowledge and entertainment to the mix.  There was a dinner after the event this year that was hosted by the BC Potter's Guild that gave me the opportunity to chat with Robbie Lobell and Lorna Meaden, which was really great.  Sometimes these types of conferences are more about connecting with people in your field and this was one of those years for me.

Image out-takes in order (all the really good photos will go to the organizers so they can promote the event)!
Takeshi Yasuda
Robbie Lobell
Mariko Paterson
Judy Weeden
Bob Kingsmill
Lorna Meaden
and Takeshi Yasuda's tools

Last time I went to the Symposium I wrote about a few of the presenters that really caught my eye including my ceramic professor Joan Bruneau, the remarkable Alwyn O'Brien, and Gailan Ngan who graduated at the same time as me.   

Glaze inlay and up-coming workshop thoughts

Wow! I so appreciated the comments from yesterday's post giving feed-back on some of my new work!  I was recently reading this blog post about 'what's up with blogs' and feedback being so much quicker to receive on facebook or instagram, where as the process for blogs is taking a lot of time these days (passwords/security codes etc).  I did think about whether I had been commenting as much on blogs as I used to - probably no, I might like something or want to say how much a post connected with me, but don't always have the proper time to spend.  So when I get more then 2 comments here, it feels like a big deal- so thank you! It means a lot!

While we are on the new work front, I posted a couple of photos on instagram from my first firing of the year.  I thought I would try a glaze inlay method- which is kind of like a mishima method but using glaze instead of on the bare clay.  I was pretty happy with the results as one-offs, especially the first mug, which kind of has a water-colour/japanese floral design look to it.  At least that's what I thought when I saw it.  The first mug combines my sticker/stencils with then the glaze inlay lines for the stems and leaves. The second is just the glaze inlay idea with a super simple pattern.  If you want to try this method yourself, basically you glaze your piece and then apply a wax resist and let that dry a bit.  Using a sharp tool you draw/carve into the glaze and then sponge off the extra wax/glaze from inside the lines.  At that point you would fill in the lines with a different glaze.   Obviously this method probably works best for simple drawings- not super detailed drawings, but it's worth testing out.  I think the biggest drawback to this method would be that there is no going back, only going forward.  In other words if you make a mistake- I guess you could try to fill the line with the original glaze and hope it covers it up?  Something to think about. 

On another front, the Canadian Clay Symposium is coming up (as well as NCECA).  I generally really like going to workshops and conferences on ceramics as they can be inspiring.  My biggest complaint that I walk away with, however, is that all too often, the presenters spend most of their time just talking about how they construct their pieces and not enough time talking about decoration.   I realize that the time crunch of presenting work and limited materials often means that presenters aren't glazing their work during the demo, but that is what I would like to see in a demo. 

Tomorrow I am going to this event.  I'm curious to see what it's about.  Sometimes it's nice to connect with new people and to try new things, don't you think?  You never know where it will lead!