Colours....

I have been getting stuck into mixing up coloured glazes. It took a while for myself and Ed (the ceramics facilitator) to work out which material equivalents to use, but we got there in the end. Many of the materials I regularly use are deemed dodgy in Canada it seems, so one of the lead substances Ed had locked away! I also got shown a box of very rarely used stains....found an unlabelled bag of yellow powder, I am 99% sure that it is Lead Antimony but won't know for sure until I have tested it....

I have made a ceramic model of a pitcher-like flower shape and made a plaster mould of it, so I can cast many of these to experiment.

On Sunday a group of 8 of us had a fantastic 22.5km hike in the ice fields, about 1.5 hours west of Banff. Right at the start we climbed straight up for about 2000 feet, at the highest point we were probably about 8000 feet up (Banff itself is 4500 feet above sea level). It was hard work but totally worth it! We had a some fantastic views of waterfalls and glaciers and even walked across bits of snow. I was only wearing my hiking sandals but they did me proud! I have no blisters or scrapes and wearing sandals avoids the dreaded wet sock scenario that many of my fellow hikers had after walking through streams over stepping stones! It was a wonderful experience, we came back down more gently through pine forests, mosses and flowers. The path was lined with a favourite flower of mine; the aquilegia, it was brilliant to see so many of them in the wild. We were all high as kites when we got back, just shows what exercise can do for the mind and body!