Pottery from the UBC club studio

I have a few pottery pictures saved up from the last couple of months. I have really been enjoying having pottery studio access in the Summer. I am still on the tea light holder phase. I guess I will keep going until everyone I know has three of them. The ones below right were given to the Promislow family in East Lansing, Michigan. I work with Keith Promislow at Michigan State and visit him for a month every year (a shorter trip - three weeks - this time). Also below are two of my "little bowl attached to a bigger bowl" for olive pits, or dip for chips or vegetables. They need some work...

I have also been making some spoon heads that I attach to wooden handles. They also need some work... Two salt shakers, the one on the right turned out quite well I think.

     

Britannia Canada Day Celebration

I volunteer at Britannia Community Centre, which is in my old Commercial Drive (Grandview) neighbourhood. They have a different model at Britannia, with the community centre, elementary and high schools, and Library all sharing the same space and some resources. I have heard that it makes for some administrative headaches to organize things across the different partners, but when it works it can really bring together the community in a way that the separate groups cannot.

Because I have a fairly demanding day job, I sign up mainly to help with weekend special events. One of the ones I have done three (maybe four?) years in a row now is to help out at the Canada Day event they organize. I help run the button making booth, with Helen Spaxman, a long time friend that I first met as my pottery instructor at an evening class at Britannia. The button maker is a large sized one (3"). Button making is one of the activities that is provided at the celebration, along with live music, a bouncy castle, face painting, speeches by politicians, and many other things. It is usually held in Victoria Park but because it was a high profile year (Canada's 150th year) it was held this year in the more prominent Grandview Park.

Helen brings pastel crayons, pencils, stencils for maple leaves, and wooden skewers for Sgraffito if you want to add extra layers of design. Adults as well as kids get into it, and I really enjoy it myself. I get to make a few buttons as demos as well as use the button maker to make ones for other people. There were supplies for a few magnets and I got to make a few of those this year. My creations are below, magnets in the top row and pin buttons below. There are people with amazing art talent - I saw some really good ones this year.