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POTTERS
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COLUMBIA
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Salieglazed Sewer [Pipes

My inspiration at Medalta 2) Gillian McMillan

Next to Plainsman Clay’s office and the vast piles of clay in Medicine
Hat, Alta., there is a very large domed kiln. Creeping into the dark
interior you find that the walls are completely glazed. Nearby is a
block-long pile of shards. Imperfect salt-glazed sewer pipes were
broken up and just left there.

Down the road is Medalta National Historic Site, where, until a few
years ago, they manufactured the crocks for prairie pickles, crockery
for Canadian households and for the dining cars on the trains. There
are still several of the round kilns and a wonderful museum showing
all aspects of the making of these familiar, but lumpy, stoneware pots.

Thanks to the inspiration and determination of Les Manning,
former ceramics director at Banff School of the Arts, there is now also
the Shaw International Artists-in-Residence Program, housed in a
completely reconditioned brick building on the Historic Site.

Having thought about the luxury of an artist residency as a chance
to devote a serious length of time to doing nothing except making
pots, and on hearing news of the splendid studio facilities in Medicine
Hat, I decided to apply to go this June. I was one of 13 artists invited
to share the studios, with Nelson's Robin Dupont as an atmospheric
firing mentor. Also working in studios in the building are Les Manning,
Artistic Director Aaron Nelson, studio tech Jenn Demke-Lange and
year-long Resident Jim Etzkorn.

We were welcomed so warmly by the Friends of Medalta and the
Medicine Hat Potters Club that we felt like celebrities. But soon it
became clear that we all were really determined to make the most of
the valuable time in this facility, with its glaze room, several electric
kilns and the large gas kiln, the gas-fired soda and salt kilns and a wood
kiln. Some artists did, in fact, work all night but certainly we were
there long hours. Our accommodation was in two- or four-person flats
at Medicine Hat College, where we each had our own room and shared
excellent kitchen, washer and dryer, freezer, TV and bathrooms, and
we had access to a nearby community room for students where we had
Internet access.

Before leaving, I spoke to last year's residents Amy Gogarty and Gail
Carney about it all, especially transportation. I fell exactly in between
their advice “Oh it’s an easy bike-ride” and “You definitely need an
air-conditioned car to get back and forth between the flats and the
Shaw Centre!” Both are true. In the end, I walked very occasionally
as it took a full hour along Seven Persons Creek, or was given a ride
by artists who had their cars with them or shared a taxi. For the final
week or so, I rented a car.

Back to those sewer pipes. I have occasionally had the chance to
take workshops with salt-firing potters: years ago in England with
Douglas Phillips in Somerset, with Walter Keeler at ECU and with
Jane Hamlyn at the Shadbolt Centre. I keep being drawn back to
the luscious orange-peel surface. Recently Vincent Massey gladdened
my heart by including some of my work in his Whistler salt kiln. So,
when Aaron assured me that the salt kiln at Medalta is indeed brand
new and available, that was the deciding factor in my plan for June.
Finding beautiful examples of various sizes and colours of salt glaze on
shards in that pile just kept me excited.

I found that loading and firing the salt kiln, even though it is fired
with the ever-present gas of this region, not wood, was work for several
people. My fellow residents were keen to help roll salt burritos in

Very excited—Gillian inspecting a load of her “salty pots”.

newspaper and formed a team when it was time to poke the dampened
burritos into the ‘peeps.’ I could not have managed without the
enthusiastic help of Saskatchewan potter Claude Morin who, luckily for
me, had also decided to make good use of the salt kiln. It was so
exciting!

Now that it’s over I shall be hoping that I will have the chance to
make more salty pots. I wish I could build salt kiln in my Port Moody
garden! There are many more ideas in my notebook.

I heartily recommend the residency experience, especially if you
have a clear idea of work you want to pursue. The time and space are
uninterrupted. Sometimes there’s total satisfied silence in the studio.
But it isn’t a workshop: nobody teaches you and nobody comments on
your work unless asked. Jenn will answer questions about the glazes
there, Aaron advises on firing the kilns but otherwise you need to be
confident about your own direction. We were all on different paths, in
a companionable way.

Circle Craft Co-operative provided a scholarship to attend this
valuable residency, for which I am very grateful. The Circle Craft
Gallery on Granville Island will be displaying some of my pieces, as
well as those of fellow guild member Debra Sloan for the next few
weeks.

To read my blog of this busy month and to see many more photos go
to www. gillianmemillan.com and click on ‘blog’.

Potters Guild of BC Newsletter « July/August 2040

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