Black Posts
New Colours and Stories from Cobalt
Cobalt is an amazing town to visit for local colours! A century ago it had a floating population of 12,000 people living in it, mined almost 1,000 tons of silver in a single year (30,000,000 ounces), and even had…
Firing Ochre and Bone
This week I fired some ochres and bones at my studio in Conestoga. I love this process, and was excited to see the results of heating a few different soils and clays from here in the village in my outdoor firing…
Found Wanting Black
Last week I had the opportunity to work with a wonderful bunch of people out in Edmonton, Alberta in celebrating, finishing, and perhaps resurrecting Betty Spackman’s Found Wanting exhibition. I was lucky enough to attend the exhibition when it appeared…
Rockhounding: Marmora
Visiting Marmora was an amazing experience. Mining in this location goes back to the 1820s, and as one hikes around the site, the idea of all this rock being moved by men and horses is mind-boggling. A photograph simply can’t…
Firing Pigments: Going hotter
While it has been good to see the colour changes that can happen when applying heat to the iron based ochres, this controlled fashion has limits for me. Without pushing things I can get the pigment samples up to about…
Making Charcoal
Today the children and I began by pruning the grape vines and ended up making charcoal. With the spring here it was time to prune back the old growth on my vines so that younger, grape bearing vines could replace…