Wow! What a morning! Cindy John and I arrived at the studio a few minutes after 5 Wednesday morning. The City TV van arrived about 5:25 and he started setting up. We made some last minute arrangements to chairs etc and the Heather Rondeau from WinHouse arrrived. We talked briefly, started making tea and coffee, then Randall from Fife and Dekel came in with trays of muffins, cinnamon buns, biscuits, scones and the fixings.
From 6 oclock on people started coming through the door. We did the first cut in from the studio a few minutes after 7.
City Host Bridget Ryan and Fire Chief Randy Wolsey did their best impersonations from the movie "Ghost" shortly after this photo was taken.
Cindy had her hands full as every 20 minutes there were two more inexperienced potters ready to try their hands at throwing a pot. The real challenge was it had to result in a usable bowl when the 20 minutes were up as the bowls are to be auctioned off at the fund raiser September 26th.
Darrell Coley of Edmonton Police Services tried to concentrate on his throwing while being interviewed by Bridget. Cindy was ready to lend helping hands when required, and they were required!
The Dinner and Auction will be held at the Sutton Place Hotel. Manager Ike Janacek was one of the participants in the Breakfast Throwathon.
While Cindy was working at the wheel Jim had several hand builders making bowls at one of the tables. There are several ways to build pots without a wheel. We decided that in the interest of time and of winding up with a finished bowl that was going to be fairly functional we would use some bisque bowl shapes and build the bowls inside, using them as molds. One of the big advantages of this is that the wet clay bowl is easy to dump out onto a board and can even be signed when finished. Three representatives of the Edmonton Eskimos Football Team,(wives not players!) were the first three to try the process. Joan, Allyson, and three time Olympic speed skating medalist Isabelle Charest are working here.
Noted Senator the Honourable Dr. Thelma Chalifoux breezed through making her bowl. I asked her if she had done this before and she said, Not with clay but with dough, many times!
One of the stars of the morning was Edmonton mayor Stephen Mandel. It was an honour to have him in the studio and he made two bowls for the event.
Of course he was interviewed by Bridget while throwing. The mayor is a very strong proponent for the Edmonton Women’s Shelter , WinHouse, and all the good they are attempting to do.
MLA for CastleDowns, Thomas Lukaszuk, represented the Provincial Government and threw two very nice bowls. Unfortunately one of them was accidentally knocked to the floor. When we recovered it he converted it to an ashtray! He and Mayor Mandel have a friendly wager on now on who will receive the biggest bid at the auction for their respective works!
Thomas also tried his hand at handbuilding!
With final words of encouragement from the mayor we wound up the morning. 
Our job now is to take the bowls created by all the participants, trim them a bit, get signatures from those who have not signed them yet, bisque, glaze and achieve 100% success out of the kiln. No pressure!
Here it is appropriate to put a big thank you to our son John who took all these pictures. He did a great job and was the only photographer there!
Also, it would not have been breakfast without the contribution from Randall Liske of Fife and Dekel. He also threw and handbuilt pots for the event.
Once everyone had left and the TV crew had packed up we took a brief break then headed back into the studio. Put the wheels back in their normal locations, returned the shelves between them, then loaded pots to be bisque fired into both the 10 and 16 cu ft kilns as we continue the race to have some pots ready for the Wholesale show which begins next weekend, August 14.
Today Cindy has to finish the BeanPots , tea pots, and throw mugs, and other small items. I’ve got a bunch of platters, and sushi plates to make as well. Hopefully the weather will not turn any wetter and we can get everything dry.
I’ll also wax all the bisque ware sitting around the studio now in preparation for glazing tomorrow.
The kids leave late Sunday for a visit with all their old friends and family in Dawson Creek and Cindy and I go into Show Mode…flat out for a week and a half. If it wasn’t fun we wouldn’t do it….right?
jim
August 4th, 2005 at 12:00 pm Congratulations! Looks like it was a great morning for everyone. And good photos, too. I’m really enjoying visiting your blog regularly…I’ve added it to my RSS feedlist. And I think I’ve already pointed another reader with an interest in pottery your way.
August 5th, 2005 at 1:26 am Wow, what a day you had! Looks like lots of fun and a lot of good PR. Tell Cindy I have watched your DVD many times now with my children. Each time we realize one more thing we need to do and our work is on the wheel is getting better each time! Still hoping for DVD 2. Bob