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HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1977-12-01, Page 18PAGE 18—CLINTON NEWS-RECORD,,THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1977 0' Auburn gift shop features ceramics BY JOANNE WALTERS The little village of Auburn is usually bypassed by travellers as they whiz along County Road 25 on their way to bigger centres. Not many people take those little jogs off the main road to visit the centre of the village. If they did . however, they might be pleasantly surprised, especially at one of the newest stores located there. The Friendly Village Gift Shop located on Goderich Street in Auburn has been open for about a year now. It features a variety of hand crafted items set in a homey atmosphere. It seems only natural that proprietor Bess Slater has opened a gift shop. She possesses so much creative talent that she can almost fill the store with her own hand crafted creations. In fact, when the store first opened, she did just that by trying to make something new every day to put in it. But then she got a bit busier and no longer had the time required to make something new every day. This was because she became involved with her ceramics hobby above all the others and, without really meaning to, she became a teacher of ceramics as well. Since October she has held ceramics classes at the store on Tuesday and Thursday nights at 7:30. She teaches six women on Tuesday nights and five on Thursday nights. One of her students travels to her classes from Brussels and a couple come from Goderich. And various people "just pop in" now and again whether they attend the classes or not. KILN AND GREENWARE One of the Slater store's drawing cards is a kiln which Mrs. Slater purchased for $500 and learned how to work this past summer. So, while not intending to teach ceramics, after she got her kiln and hung out her sign, it just happened that way. Others became interested in learning the craft and using the kiln. At the store, Mrs. Slater has greenware for sale. This greenware is the very soft clay substance which comes out of the mould" ready to be cleaned and fired by the ceramics craftsman. She buys this greenware from Mercedes Ceramic Supplies, a 30 -year-old family business located in ' Woodbridge, Ontario which even makes its own kilns. She has many shapes and pieces of greenware including beer steins, figurines, animals, busts, pitcher and bowl sets, casserole and candy dishes, ashtrays, Santa Claus mugs and Christmas trees for Christmas decorations, pots for plants and much more. Prices for this greenware range from about 70 cents for an ashtray to about $4:50 for a casserole dish. Mrs. Slater says you must have respect for greenware. It has to be handled like eggs when being worked with or it will crumble. Sometimes if it is broken, it can be salvaged by putting it in a plastic bag with water to make it soft for remoulding. Once a person purchases a piece of greenware that he or she likes, the next step is to clean the mould marks off and even it out with a cleaning tool. It is then sanded by rubbing a sanding, sponge on it in a circular motion.After that it is washed with water and sponge. The greenware is now ready to be fired in the kiln for the first time. The kiln is lined with fire brick and electric coils. It heats up in various stages from low (500 degrees) to medium (1100 degrees) to high (1830 degrees) at which 'time an automatic kiln sitter or` cone which bends at a certain temperature automatically shuts it off. The kiln takes all the moisture out of the greenware and makes it hard. Mrs. .Slater's kiln is Canadian made. If you buy an American kiln, she says, it has to be rewired to Ontario Hydro's standards. The hydro for the kiln doesn't cost much because the heat is contained inside. The kiln takes about three to four, hours to warm up, about that long to fire a product and about that long again to cool down resulting in about a 12 hour process. PAINTING BISQUEWARE After the first firing in the kiln, the greenware becomes, known as bisqueware. It is then ready to be painted. Paints cost about $1.35 a jar but a jar lasts for more than one piece. A popular paint is crystal glaze. This paint contains little specs of glass which melt and run together when fired creating different dotted patterns. Mrs. Slater's shop is well stocked with various colors of paint to apply to ceramics creations. Her glazes ,. are Californian -made but she purchases them in Wood- bridge at the same supply company where she pur- chases her greenware. There is a great variety of paints to work with says Mrs. Slater. There are both satin and foamy glazes like the kind that would be used to paint the beard on the Santa Claus greenware. After the bisqueware is painted, it is dull and must be fired in the kiln again to reveal its natural shiny color. It's always exciting at this stage, says Mrs. Slater, to open up the kiln and see what's there. Red and orange colors are the hardest colors of paint to " use. About five coats of these colors must be applied to the bisqueware because each creation requires about three coats and the kiln fires off at least two coats of red and orange colored paint. Stains are also popular according to Mrs. Slater. These stains are put on the bisqueware and then covered with a plastic coating. The colors of the stain are the true colors that are shown in the paint's jar sb a person knows exactly what he's getting. CERAMICS FOR EVERYONE Mrs. Slater took ceramics lessons for eight years when she lived in Hespeler. Her teacher there is still teaching ceramic's after 25 years. Mrs. Slater just happened to drop in at her mother-in-law's place for a visit one evening when she was headed for her ceramics class. She decided to go along with her to see what it was all about and she ended up sticking with it. Ceramics is a hobby that people can pick up easily according to Mrs. Slater. A person's very first piece turns out reasonably well and this is encouraging, she says. " A lot of people think you have to be artistic to take up ceramics, says Mrs. Slater, but it's up to the individual. A person can simply clean and paint something which is already there. More ar- tistically inclined people may paint their own flowers or designs on a moulded piece or put decals on their creations. Mrs. Slater's students are mostly young women, some still in high school but ceramics can be enjoyed by all age groups she says. Many senior citizens are taking up the hobby anct, even young children can handle such a hobby according to Mrs. Slater who holds up a snowman created by a 3 -year- old. Mrs. Slater's own two children, a. girl and a boy aged 12 and 14, have both taken up ceramics. '® After Christmas. Mrs. Slater is planning to teach her classes some hand modelling by giving them a big blob of plastercine like material and letting them shape it them- selves. Small roses hand moulded out of clay make a nice finished ceramics product, according to Mrs. Slater. OTHER INTERESTS Mrs. Slater naturally fills the store with some of her ceramic creations but her talent does not stop with ceramics. She does dried flower arranging, macrame and embroidery. Her mother, she says, taught her how to sew. If she didn't do something right, her mother would help her rip it out and do it over again. People bring knitting and crocheting into the Slater's store for Mrs. Slater to sell. The store also has wood carvings .done by a Nova Scotian man and various items hand crafted by Mrs. Slater's sister such as Christmas trees made of styrofoam and bread dough flowers. Tor make these flowers, white bread, glue and glycerine are mixed together to form a white clay to be shaped and painted. Mrs. Slater's husband Robert is a wholesale gift distributor. Before opening the gift shop in Auburn, the Slaters operated a general store for seven years. Before the Slaters moved`to the store from Hespeler, no one had lived in the building for over 40 years, so there was a lot of fixing up to do says Mrs. Slater. She works in her house (the same building. as the store) in the mornings and in the shop in the afternoons from 1 to 5:30. Mrs. Slater was a bank teller at one time and became interested in coin collecting then. She continues this hobby today. She also likes house plants and belongs to the Auburn Horticultural Society. She is president and treasurer for St. Mark's Anglican Church group in Auburn. She is secretary - treasurer .for ' Bali's Cemetery, for the Recreation Committee and for Little League baseball. "I don't know how I fall into all these jobs," says a busy Mrs. Slater. But in a village of 250 people almost everyone becomes involved, keeps active and pulls his own weight. So next time you're travelling along a main road, take a jog off to the side. It may lead you to some in- teresting people or places or simply afford you a relaxing scenic drive as a change of pace from the old familiar route that you probably never. take notice of anyway. NOTICE to our customers Mr. Edward Smith, our fu'nace . ser- viceman for the past seven years, is leaving our employment to enter business on his own. We wish Ed the best of luck in his new venture. Mr. Gerard Boon, a fully licensed burner mechanic, will replace Ed Smith and we will still be offering prompt, efficient service as in the past. ROSS SCOTT FUELS Division of Sunoco Home Comfort Inc. BRUCEFIELD, ONTARIO PHONE 482-3491 "When you go with Sunoco you go with confidence" o Mrs. Bess Slater of The Friendly Village Gift Shop in Auburn paints a piece of bisqueware. Bisqueware is greenware or soft clay after it has been fired in a kiln and made hard for painting. It is all part of the ceramics process which Mrs. Slater teaches on ' Tuesday and Thursday nights. (staff photo) Townships use clean up 'programs Townships in Huron County are getting some unexpected help these days due to an Ontario government work project designed to clean up , township road allowances, The government, through the department of agriculture, is giving each township in the county $6,000 to pay wages for workers hired to clean brush and debris that the township doesn't have the manpower to remove , from road allowances. , Spence Cummings, development officer for Huron County said Tuesday that 20 men are currently working in several townships in the county cleaning up road sides. Cummings said the men are being paid through a provincial support program that is administered by the county for the benefit of the townships. The county acts as a central agency for the project. The townships each have $6,000 to spend on wages for workers to clean „up areas designated by the townships. The workers are paid $2.65 an hour and are spending most of, their time clearing brush from roadways the townships own, but because of small road crews, can't maintain completely. Cummings said the project will continue until the end of March 1978. He said the pay was not. that • good but was enough to allow the county to maintain an adequate work force. He said most of the workers were receiving welfare or were unemployed and wanted the opportunity to work. He said the job had a high turnover of employees because of the low pay but still filled the needs of many workers as well as the townships. Some of the debris being cleaned up and burned is due to last winter's severe storms.. He said he realized that type of work could go on forever but hoped that much of it was done before next March. Christmas Classics he'll a ate SHIRTS -ROBES TIES -SOCKS VELOUR TOPS PYJAMAS SCARVES SWEATERS JACKETS -BELTS BLAZERS -SLACKS GIFT CERTIFICATES GIFT BOXES Be -Sure To Enter the "Grand Christmas Give -a -way" MAIN CORNER CLINTON 48? 4732 Constance Foresters attend assembljn. By Mary Merrier Many of the Canadian Foresters from Courts Constance and Constantine attended the Western Ontario Provincial Assembly held recently in Goderich. Mr. and Mrs. Allan Merner of Waterloo spent the weekend with Mr. and Mrs. Carl Merner, Sandy, Julie, Michael, and Michelle. Mr. and Mrs. John Thompson Sharon and Bob, Brian Nesbitt of Stratford, Mr. and Mrs. Terence Hunter of Colborne Township, and Mrs. Vi Armstrong of Michigan attended the baptismal service recently at the Londesboro United Church, when Leisa Maye, daughter of Jim and Sheila Thompson was baptized. Mr. and Mrs. John Thompson accompanied by Mrs. Terence 'Hunter and Mrs. Vi Armstrong, went to Sarnia a recent Sunday af- ternoon where they met the Robert Reynolds family who took Mrs. Hunter and Mrs. Armstrong home to Michigan, where Mrs. Hunter is spending the next three weeks visiting. The John Thompson family recently spent evening supper with Mr. and Mrs. -Jim Thompson and Leisa and Mr. Terence Hunter of Colborne township. Mrs. George Mcllwain recently spent an evening supper with Mr. and Mrs. Carl Merner; Sandy, Julie, Michael and Michelle when they celebrated Sandy's eighth hirthday. The Foresters Family Day., is to be held this Sunday, December 4 with the progra m starting at 3 and a pot luck supper at 5 p.m. Mr, and Mrs. Paul Stevenson David, Darren and Luanne were Sunday evening dinner guests with Mr. and Mrs. Tom Bauer of Kit- chener. They spent Sunday evening with Mr. and Mrs. Cecil Herman and Betty Ann of Shakespeare, when they celebrated Mrs. Herman's hirthday and Betty Ann's 18th birthday. Congratulations are,, ex- tended to Paul and Betty Southgate on the birth,`' of a boy, Sean Murray, on Sunday November lith in Seaforth Community Hospital. Smile The people who have the most trouble keeping up with the Joneses are the collection agencies. Your Voice in Clinton and Area since 1865 CLINTON NEWS -RECORD orf:4r24r14rr,Z2g. f:+$r1 r:407 21"r,�:t7.C.r.�r.,�:,e$rr,� Z: Santa's checking k4 t: his lists for gift ideas, from groves tv. • • • •,. • COLOUR TV's • • ADMIRAL "ATARI" Video Game system that's years ahead of the rest! Works with special pre-programmed cartridges -- 4 $ 24 9 • • different cartidges avaiiabe, with 27 different games on each cartridge. Come in for a demon- • stration! 14", 20" and 26" WITH 1 FREE CARTRIDGE •• • PORTABLE RADIOS •. • DIGITAL CLOCK RADIOS •• STEREO HEADPHONES • • MICROWAVE OVENS qclmlral -Alppliessicest •"1 Ranges - Refrigerators - Dishwashers • PERSONAL CARE ITEMS • STEREOS - Cabinets or Components Styler-dryers - blowers, curling irons, razors' w4. 11/4 •a W-- • EUREKA VACUUM CLEANERS • CALCULATORS 41 before you buy! • ti Pre -Christmas Special! SMALL APPLIANCES °" 1O% OFFSMALLAPPLIANCES °" OFF DECEMBER 1.2-3 DECEMBER 1-2-'3 Compare our Write Compare our price Enter at Groves TV - CLINTON'S GRAND CHRISTMAS GI V E•A• W A Y Sponored by ClintonBusiness Association TV - CLINTON'S GRAND CHRISTMAS GIVE -A -WAY by Clinton Business Association Ticket with each 'S. purchase. GROVES tk TV & APPLIANCES tc 1 O HURON ST., CLINTON 482-341 4 "We Service What We Sell" 4 • 0