Saturday 29 November 2008

Friday



It's been a beautiful icy, sunshiny, misty day today. I had to find every excuse to work outside in it. Seven layers and a good hat ensured I was toasty. A great discovery is that my woolly gloves fit snugly inside my leather kiln gloves, keeping my poor little fingers lovely and warm. I walked home wearing them tonight - I think I'm in danger of embarrassing my children.



Invigorated by the sunshine, I started to build a new shed outside on the back of the workshop. This is going to house my clay prep stuff so that I can get a system working properly. I ordered new wriggly tin today for the roof - it's my Christmas present and it will arrive on Thursday, so I'm going to get to have my pressy early. The framework's going to be made from salvage timber that I've been collecting for a while.

My dream is to be making all of my pots from Hollyford clay by Christmas and it's starting to look like it may be a possibility.

Everything takes time, it's five years since I took on the workshop as a derelict barn, it's getting there gradually in fits and starts.

There have been a lot of pots through the doors of that place, a lot of landfill and a lot of sweat and tears. It's a constant uphill struggle, often with doubts and fears, constantly living hand to mouth, but it's a wonderful way to scrape a living.



Digger walking is becoming increasingly enjoyable and it adds structure to my day. He seems to be understanding what I'm asking of him as we get to know each other better. The instinct to flush out birds from the undergrowth kicks in as soon as he gets into the meadow field. He sent a Snipe up into the air today which was quite a sight.

He sniffs around the thicket, while I marvel at all this stuff, which is going to impact greatly on my work in the forthcoming weeks.



It was a very tranquil, inspirational day.




Have lovely weekends all.

4 comments:

Gary's third pottery blog said...

Whoa. maybe you're a potter with a poet's soul.
:)

ang design said...

ahhhh you da man mr dooooglas...cheers..

Tracey Broome said...

Wonderful post! I think you have chosen quite the right path for yourself. I had a job making a good bit of money and was miserable, now I make almost nothing and am so happy. I liked your previous post about taking time to learn, that's what I am in the process of doing right now and have made almost no pots. Just reading a lot and looking around me for inspiration. And enjoying the holiday season with my friends and family instead of stressing over pots like I did last year.I'm lucky I can do that I guess. But when Gerry retires our sole income will be from pots so I better enjoy this time, right?!

Becky said...

Sheer poetry, Love Daddy Fitch! Lovely post and so inspirational. I have no doubt you can make whatever you choose to make. And whatever you choose to make will make an impression.