VCPG March 2025 Newsletter
Program Meeting on March 24th • • info below
For Your Calendar:
March 6th ……...................Board Meeting @ 3:00pm
March 24th …….................Members Program @ 7:00pm • Gathering @6:30
April 3rd …….....................Board Meeting @ 3:00pm
April 14th ……...................Gallery Committee meeting @ 7pm
April 21st ……....................Gallery Artists meeting @ 7:00pm
April 28th ……....................Members Program @ 7:00pm • Gathering @6:30
May 1st ……......................Board Meeting @ 3:00pm
May 4th ……......................Beatrice Wood Submission deadline
May 18th ……....................Annual Pit Fire at Arroyo Verde Park
May 24th - July 6th............Small Treasures Show at Beatrice Wood
June 5th ……......................Board Meeting @ 3:00pm
June 7th&8th ……..............Ojai Show Sale
June 9th ……......................Gallery Committee meeting @ 7pm
July 3rd ……......................Board Meeting @ 3:00pm
July 21st ……....................Gallery Artists meeting @ 7:00pm
August 7th …….................Board Meeting @ 3:00pm
August 11th ……...............Gallery Committee meeting @ 7pm
September 4th ……...........Board Meeting @ 3:00pm
October 2nd ……...............Board Meeting @ 3:00pm
October 13th ……...............Gallery Committee meeting @ 7pm
October 20th ……...............Gallery Artists meeting @ 7:00pm
November 6th……..............Board Meeting @ 3:00pm
December 4th ……..............Board Meeting @ 3:00pm
December 8th …..…...........Gallery Committee meeting @ 7pm
You will find the link to all Zoom meetings/events on the VCPG.ORG Home Page.
Just click on the meeting/event in the Guild Calendar for the Zoom link.
A Message from Your VCPG Board President • March 2025
Greetings VCPG Members –
Is it late winter or early spring? It’s a time of transition and a lot has been happening behind the scenes with the Guild as we ready for an exciting spring and summer. More information is provided below for some of these items and is available in the Guild Calendar on the Home Page of VCPG.org.
Here is just a summary of some of what’s happening:
Jury: The Spring Jury is underway – the first critique has happened, and artists are preparing for the second critique in May.
Gallery: The new Leave of Absence policy has proved to be very popular among Gallery artists. More information is available on the Gallery page at VCPG.org. On that same page, juried Plus artists can apply for the Gallery Waiting List and Gallery members can pay for their dues online. How convenient!
The Marketing Team has also been hard at work promoting the Gallery with Special Events that provide weekend sales opportunities for ALL Guild juried Plus members at the Gallery; while at the same time boosting Gallery sales for artists.
The Valentines event was a big success and we’re looking forward to the Treasures from the Sea event March, 22 nd . Talk about a win/win!
Programs: We can thank the Program Team for making connections with artists and resources near and far for our 4th Monday monthly Program Meetings.
Coming up in March is Printmaking on Clay. June is Stamp It – our Summer Clay Challenge – what does “stamp it” mean to you in relation to clay? Show us! And in lieu of the May Program Meeting is our annual Pit Fire, May 18 th (with prep sessions before). In my opinion the Pit Fire is one of the most fun events of the year. Register now!
And if that’s not enough, the Program Team organized a Pottery Jam for March 15th on using stamps with clay – a warmup for the upcoming Clay Challenge.
Show and Sales: Out annual show at Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts opens May 24th with a theme of Small Treasures. The deadline for submissions is May 4th . And of course, the Ojai Pottery Market is happening June 7 th and 8th. Stay tuned for more information, the application and Team Service opportunities. It takes a community!
Outreach: The School Outreach Program is going strong, and we will be sending out the application package for our Summer Residency Program soon.
Boring but important admin stuff: I don’t know about you, but I think the new Direct Deposit service is awesome! The money comes faster and lands right in the bank. Participants in all our sales events can sign up for this feature. Email treasurer@vcpg.org if you have questions. And we’re now in our second year of using QuickBooks to manage our finances – improving our ability to track and plan our expenditures in real time! Thanks Finance Team!
Improvements happen to VCPG.org all the time and we update both our Guild and Community Calendars frequently – these listings often have the meeting and/or website links you’re looking for – check it out. Look for the launch of the new and improved Team Service page for signing up early next month. Thanks Webservices - talk about working behind the scenes!
The next Bulk Clay Order is scheduled to open May 5th . Look for an Announcement by our own Clay Guru – Shawn Felts.
And last but not least – please join me in welcoming Wendi Butler as the new Member-At-Large on the VCPG Board of Directors. This position was newly created to inject new, fresh perspectives into Guild planning and implementation. Wendi brings her creative energy and administrative skills to our Board. Thanks for stepping up, Wendi!
And thanks to all of you who, one way or another, are working behind the scenes to make our Guild so successful. This is just SOME of what’s happening just over the next couple of months. WE ARE AWESOME!
That’s in for now. More next month. Keep on making.
Stacy Rowe
VCPG Board President
president@vcpg.org
Program Meeting • March 24th • Program: 7:00pm • Gathering: 6:30
Printmaking Techniques on Clay
Our presenter this month is Katrina McElroy, a Los Angeles based artist whose multi-media work includes painting, printmaking, installation and video. She has been an adjunct professor of art at Moorpark College since 2012. Her favorite course to teach is Printmaking, an art form she has loved since studying it in Florence as an undergraduate student.
Katrina enjoys exposing students to the rich traditional methods of printmaking along with the more playful and experimental side of the printmaking.
Katrina graduated from Reed College with a Bachelor’s degree in Studio Art and from Cal State University, Northridge with a Master of Fine Arts degree.
Besides art, Katrina loves spending time with her family, gardening and reading.
Katrina will be exploring the three main categories of printmaking: relief, intaglio, and planographic – and their application to creating surface designs on clay.
She will be demonstrating carving on linoleum and Speedy Carve and printing the resulting stamps on greenware and bisque (relief technique).
She’ll demonstrate the making of a Tetrapak plate and then printing it on a clay slab (intaglio technique).
Finally, she’ll use a Gelli Plate to print with layers, textures, and stencils on slabs and bisque as well as integrating silkscreens into planographic designs.
Link for program meetings can always be found on the Guild’s Home Page. Click the appropriate calendar date and the zoom link and other key info will load.
Treasures from the Sea
at the Ventura Pottery Gallery
March 22 11:00-6:00
Still space if you would like to participate.
You just need to be a juried plus member.
Food Share Hosts Special Event for Ventura County Potters
Food Share is excited to invite our members of the Ventura County Potters to a special evening of cocktails and a guided tour of their facility, led by President & CEO Monica White.
Join us on April 23 from 5:00 PM to 6:30 PM at their Oxnard location to see firsthand what it takes to feed more than 250,000 food-insecure people each year.
We'll also hear the incredible impact of our Bowl of Thanks event held last November, which helped provide much-needed support for our community.
Space is limited to 25 guests, so RSVP as soon as possible! If the event is full, you can email mhatch@foodshare.com to be added to the waitlist (or to an additional event).
Date: April 23, 2025
Location: Food Share, Oxnard
Time: 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM
Cost: Free
Register Here
If you have tableware you'd like to donate as an auction item for Food Share’s Serving Hope Auction at their FED UP fundraiser on September 20, you're welcome to bring it with you. Donations will be accepted until September 4.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Guild Programs
Annual Pit Fire
Do not miss the BEST event of the year to meet and hangout with our membership
Sunday, May 18 at Arroyo Verde Park
Are you making your pots for the bisque fire??? DO not forget they should also be bisque fired. Resources for Pit ire resources can be accessed on the Guild’s website under TALK > FORUMS > PROGRAM > WORKSHOPS > Find the post by Terry Wilson – Pit Firing Resources
Registration open now.
Details can be found at the link below or by checking out the Guild’s Calendar for May 18.
Calendar
Do not miss out on this amazing and fun Guild gathering. If you have an idea for a mini-workshop during this event please send your idea to programs@vcpg.org or give Foz a call.
Clay Challenge – June Program Meeting • Monday, June 23rd
Theme: STAMP IT!
What does "Stamp It" look like to you?
stamp /stamp/ - intransitive verb
1. To bring down (the foot) forcibly.
2. To bring the foot down onto (an object or surface) forcibly.
3. To cause to be dislodged by stomping the feet.
4. To subdue, destroy, or eliminate.
5. To crush or grind with a heavy instrument.
6. To form or cut out by application of a mold, form, or die.
7. To imprint or impress with a mark, design, or seal.
8. To impress forcibly or permanently.
9. To affix an adhesive stamp to (an envelope, for example).
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
Use your imagination and create. Be ready to submit pictures of your work by Sunday evening June 15th.
Watch for an email from Programs/Workshops closer to mid-June for photo submittal info.
Small Treasures • The Beatrice Wood show
May 24 -July 6
The opening reception is May 24th
Entries due online with images sent to Genie Thomsen by May 4th.
You can submit up to three pieces that measure within an 8” cube.
Program Planning:
Pottery Jams… Have an idea for a topic or a skill that you would like to discuss or share with other Guild members? Have a topic you would like to learn more about? Please drop the Program Team an email and we will see what we might do about putting a Jam together around that interest.
Email programs@vcpg.org and one of us will follow-up with you.
We have found a wonderful location to host future workshops at Buena HS. Lots of space, good equipment and an accessible restroom! We are working on the formal details for use. Stay tuned for future offerings.
The Program Team for 2025 includes Meredith Linden, Vera McGuire, Janet Neuwalder, Maureen Schultz and Foz. Feel free to reach out to any of us to explore an idea.
The VCPG Library •
Potters,
Where do we get our inspiration from?
Pinterest? Galleries? Books?
Books!
Ventura Potter’s Guild has books!
See the Mexican tomb objects of the Nayarit, Jalisco, Colima potters, 200 BCE to ACE 500, in
LACMA’s Sculpture of Ancient West Mexico.
Take a journey to three mountains on the planet that bring us porcelain in Edmund De Waal’s
The White Road. Learn how porcelain links the suffering workers of Jingdezhen China 1,000
years ago, to the survival of the few lucky artisans at Dachau concentration camp.
Geek out with Ruth Duckworth Modernist Sculptor, over her four-hundred-square-foot clay
mural adorning four walls of the Geophysical Sciences Building at the U of C. Learn how she
convinced the chairman of the department to give her the commission, only later admitting she
"had never made a mural before, had hardly looked at any.”
Visit the library! Please email and make an appointment with me to come see the books we
have to offer and grab them off the shelf! They are at your disposal. They must be enjoyed.
Nancy Currey
VCPG Librarian
Team Service for 2025
We are almost there!
The Team Service Team is making progress. We hope to launch the Team Service web page on April 2nd. Once it is LIVE members will receive a MemberConnect email. It will look a bit different from last year. Hopefully, you will find it more user friendly.
Questions can be directed to teamservice@vcpg.org. If there are common issues info will be posted for all via MemberConnect and Team Service Forums. Especially watch the Team Service Forum, found under the TALK > Forums menu items.
Foz and Diane Hedding will be guiding the Team Service operations in 2025.
Joke of the month
How do you make a small fortune in the pottery business?
Start with a large fortune.