Skip to main content

Happy 2016!

Year 2015 came to an end and here we are the first day of 2016.  A perfect time to review last year.

2015 was an adventure for me on all fronts. 

On the work front, I had 3 different managers and many of my co-workers who I'd worked very closely for the past 9 and a half year left.  But I did celebrate my 10 years working of the same company this past October.  Guess that's a great accomplishment.

On the volunteering front, I worked on 2 different websites (actually one is still in the work and should go live soon).  One of them is for the Miata club, which the club organized a big invitation event back in August and I did the website for the registration.  The other one is for the pottery club, where the club is in the process to migrate the existing website to a new server and at the same time the website was redesigned using WordPress.  The migration is almost done and I am hoping to get it all up and running in the next 48 hours or so.

We went away twice last year too.  We had a winter escape for a week in April and then we had a fall escape to South Africa for 3 weeks back in November/December.

On the pottery front, I missed my first ever Christmas sale since I joined the Guild.  The sale happened while I was in South Africa.  Luckily I was able to show my work at a couple of stores in Ottawa.  I might not have updated my blog much this year, but I managed to produce around 70 pieces.  I tried new style for mugs with new glaze.
New mug design (with brown clay) with Tucker's Falls creek Shino glaze
  And my brother finally got his espresso cup which he'd been asking for over a year.



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Pottery girl has been quite productive

Like I mentioned last time, since I didn’t have a show in December and didn’t spend much time outside this winter, I was able to spend more time in the studio. As a result, I actually have some finished pieces ready! I opened the kiln earlier this afternoon for my second glaze firing of the year (can you believe my 2nd glaze firing in April, this has never happened before)—here they are (sorry about the lighting…). The bottom shelf, the initial picture didn't work out and I had to take another one 2nd shelf with pieces that I did slip trail.  This is my first time doing this and I quite like the result. 3rd shelf  Top shelf  I’ve also been trying out a new look for my mug handles, but they didn’t make it into this firing. Hopefully it won’t be too long before the next update!

Another disappointment :(

I was firing up my bowls for Ottawa Guild of Potters' annual event: The Great Bowls of Fire last night.  I made 7 soup bowls, was thinking to use them to try out different glazing techniques with Ron Roy's Black and Mysterious Blue.   When I was potting at the Nepean Visual Art Centre (NVAC), I had this lovely combination of NVAC's black with Mysterious Blue (as seen on the right).   However, I've been having trouble with the NVAC's black recipe, so I went with Ron Roy's Black.  It looks pretty smooth and all.  However, it just doesn't have the same effect as the NVAC's black and mysterious blue.  It's quite disappointing.  Also, I might have made too thick of a layer for the black, it cracked a little too.     notice the chip - this one is with the same technique as shown above) this one is done by pouring in mysterious blue on black Unfortunately, since the chipping is in the inside of the bowl, I can't tak...

Great Bowls of Fire 2011

I was delighted to take part of the Ottawa Guild of Potters' Great Bowls of Fire . This is an annual event raising funds for the Ottawa Food Bank. I was one of the bowl markers and helped a bit of the set up. My bowls are the dark blue ones at the bottom of the picture.