Bonny MacNab and Jay Kimball hosted their second annual Creative Fall Retreat last weekend at TLC Greenhouse, otherwise known as Mapleridge Gallery, located just northeast of Mervin. Fifteen participants gathered Friday night and all day Saturday and Sunday to be creative with silk and fire. MacNab provided instruction on how to paint silk and Kimball facilitated a Raku firing, which is an ancient pottery technique that originates in Japan.
In terms of Raku, the participants decorated ceramic tiles using wax resists, self-made templates or freehand painting. After Kimball heated up his portable kiln, essentially an old insulated oil drum and a tiger torch, the participants placed their tiles (in batches) in the kiln and waited for them to come to temperature. Once the tiles were hot enough ,they were picked from the kiln and submerged in a bucket of sawdust or laid on the ground and horse hair was thrown on top.
The results were amazing. The tiles were covered in surfaces of white crackles, oil slick blues, metallics and more. The participants, even those who said they had never done an artistic thing in their life, were each fortunate to take home at least two beautiful tiles and a silk painting.
