Tales of the goings on at Hollyford Pottery, near the tiny village of Stockleigh English in Devon, England
Sunday, 30 November 2008
It's Sale time on Saturday
It's time for a bit of an end of year sale I think.
I've got lots and lots of big jugs, jars and the odd teapot or two - all sorts of stuff, old stock and seconds and pots that I'm bored of, all that are looking for new homes.
In fact they want new homes so badly that they're being put out at bargain prices next Saturday, the 6th December, 12 noon until 4pm.
I've still some good pots from the most recent firing and they'll be available too.
Last year I had a great sale from my garage, but this year I think I may try and hold it at Hollyford.
If you'd like to come, would you be kind enough to drop me an email to dougfitch@fsmail.net, with the words 'Pottery Sale' in the subject box, or call me on (01363) 860299 or (01363)860183.
That way I can make an assessment as to whether parking may be a problem, in which case I'll move it back to the garage again.
'It’s never been an easy life as a potter but it’s one that I choose. Sometimes I see my work being described as: Rustic, Naïve, Careless or Roughly thrown. Well, I guess if I were looking at them from the outside, then I too might think the same. To me my work has developed over the years in an unconscious manner. By that I mean, that my work is where it’s at by gradual change, influenced by what the kiln offers.'Nic Collins
And to see what the kiln offers, don't forget to check in to Nic's on line exhibition that opens on Friday night at 6pm. I'll post a reminder of course, but to see his latest posting and to read more of his monologue, follow this link.........................here
PS Nic, you're welcome and my thanks to you for your support in the last five years.
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's been a funny couple of weeks since the firing - funny in the head kind of funny.
I haven't got much made - in fact, until today there were just eighteen mugs on the shelves.
In spite of it all and contrary to my usual mindset at this stage of the proceedings, I've not felt particularly depressed this week. Far from it really. Nor have I felt terribly stressed about the fact that there are so few pots on the shelves - for once I've just accepted that there are lots of things to do, than just making pots and I've been constantly busy sorting other stuff out - going through the new pots and pricing stuff up - planning a sale (next weekend I think - more about that later) and thinking, drawing, reading, scrutinizing.
It seems that last week's migraine was my body and mind demanding a rest.
Physically I feel on top form today, just the aches and pains that a man of my time in life should be experiencing after years of abuse.
The last couple of days I've allowed my brain to recharge - it's been great - there's a lot going on up there at the moment - some funky ideas that'll come out in this next batch of work. The temptation after a firing is always to fly straight back into making pots again and to carry on where the last lot left off, in a crazy and stressed panic, trying to refill empty shelves ready to meet another deadline.
This week has been for thinking about how to develop and move on to the next stage, based on the information the last firing gave me. There's been no rush to start making. It's been a week for looking into things that are happening in the countryside around here, in particular the microscopic detail of pattern and structure in some of the flora, which is dead and dry in the fields, brown, grey and yellow, the spent seed pods and the crinkled up leaves. It's clear to see where the inspiration arose for much of the decoration on the medieval jugs that I love so. Those potters would have been so attuned to their natural environment, because it was the world they encountered on a daily basis.
My friend and photographer Johnny takes the most incredible images of plant life and magnifies it hundreds of time - it blows me away. I must get some of his images to post on here because they really opened my eyes to this stuff.
This week I've been walking Digger the dog. I take him out at midday for a forty-five minute run. It's added structure to my day, usually I'd not stop for any longer than it takes to munch a sandwich. I like it; it refreshes the mind in readiness for the afternoon session. It gets me into different fields and terrain, different plant life - all in all, really inspiring and bursting with information that can come straight from nature, to the surface of earthy, country pots - what an amazing resource base - and I'm surrounded by it.
At last, my new clay was ready to use today - that was really exciting. I've been processing the stuff from the seam that Matt and I were digging a couple of weeks ago and today it was sufficiently tough enough to make a few things from it. Drying it quickly enough in sufficient quantity is going to be the challenge, so I've started making some large, wide, low-sided vessels to pour the slip into to dry. They'll be bisc fired and left unglazed so thus, porous.
I made these three pound jugs - five of them(I'm trying to break the habit of making multiples of six)
And these mugs(I didn't do too well at breaking the habit of making multiples of six)
It's so very different from the gritty clay I'm used to using, just the naturally occurring sand that goes through the sieve, creamy, rich and silky, super-plastic, it sings, but with a softer, sweeter voice than the gruffness of the old stuff. You may be able to gather that I like it a lot - enough to turn me all poetic.
The pots will change in response to the properties of the clay - the slurry on the surface and the finger marks left from throwing. They'll be a lot thinner - that's a good thing, although I'm anxious not to make them too thin - earthenware needs a bit of substance to it. You can see from the photo how much further a pound of this clay goes - I know the mug's fired, so has shrunk already, but it's a lot, lot smaller than the new ones I made today.
I've loved the effects that the old brick clay has given me - there were some lovely results from the most recent firing that are being photographed tomorrow - I'll post them shortly, but I feel like I've left it behind. Maybe I'll still use a small percentage of it added to Hollyford clay for larger pieces until I can sort out another opening material - that's all academic as I still have to process enough to make the larger pieces, so only time will tell.
Well I've rambled enough, so I'll sign out and leave you with two videos, I hope you enjoy them as much as I'm sure you all enjoyed Ivor Cutler last night, God rest his soul.
The first one shows Digger living up to his name, looking for a seam of the good stuff.
The second shows my muddy wheel and the bird table outside my window that is alive with beautiful colour and shape all day long - a constant distraction.
I say it often and I expect you're tired of hearing it, but I only say it because I know how true it is, I'm a lucky, lucky man.
When Alex and Steve came down the week before last, Steve took a number of stills while the firing was underway. Alex is going to use them to accompany an article he's writing. Steve kindly sent me a disc with some of the images on, here's one of them, a shot taken while looking through the spyhole at the cones.
I was chatting to Alex the other day on the phone about a project he's working on with a very well renowned textile artist called Alice Kettle.
You may remember that a few weeks ago I posted this picture of some big pitchers that Alex made, inspired by slipware harvest jugs.
Here they are at the next stage, decorated by Alice with intricate, sgrafitto marks.
I like the concept of collaborative projects. Michael Cardew did some amazing work with Henry Bergen while he was at Winchcombe in the 1930's. Hannah and I touched on it, albeit briefly and with just a batch of mugs. It's an idea I'd like to explore further some time, particularly the concept of potters working with artists from disciplines other than ceramics.
During our telephone chat, I asked Alex to send me some more information about his project. The following text is lifted from his subsequent email.
The collaboration has been going on for some time since I made a film about her and got fascinated by stitch.
During the course of making the film we went on a walking tour of Winchester so she could show me some of the inspirational material that had driven the huge embroidery that she was making for the Winchester Discovery centre.
When we got to the cathederal to look at the carvings and the Bible it wasn't long before I was enthusing to her about the earthenware floor tiles.
Next it was the museum to film some medieval wood and stone carvings but what should I alight upon but a case of medieval jugs. My passion for these pots was duly communicated and by the time of my next visit there were pots appearing in the embroidery and we were talking about pots some more.
Months passed but eventually we decided to do some work together.
An early exploration of dissected porcelain cylindrical forms carved by Alice got her hooked but led nowhere. A while later I was telling her about the planned harvest jug show at the Long Room Gallery and my wish that I could have filmed its development, so she wanted to see what a harvest jug looked like.
More weeks passed then I took her to the reserve collections at Manchester Art Gallery and Museum, like I did with you and she clicked with the slipware. I planned to make a version of the large pressed dish you handled for her to work on. By this time I was involved with your project and talking endlessly about it so it was an obvious step to put my first attempts at making a harvest jug before her and let her go at them.
I have also made her some chargers.I now have some Hollyford clay drying and am pondering another jug made by me decorated by Alice and fired in its natural home in Devon. And with you telling me of plans to fire in January Im wondering where these first jugs should be fired. Galena beckons, another first for me.
Alice's decoration also has a long story attached but I'll save that one.
I also plan to explore using some richly coloured earthenware glazes to set before her in response to her brightly coloured threads.
Collaboration is a lot of fun as well as very challenging.
Well I hope I don't turn them brown, I'll keep you posted with progress.
Here's another video from Nic's blog. His firing's complete and cooling down in readiness for his forthcoming on-line exhibition. See more right.............here
Well the Motorhead gig was a laugh. I'd not seen so much hair and leather all in one place for a long time. I didn't really go dressed like that by the way, but a lot of people did. I didn't manage to get mole side of Lemmy either. It was a bit too much for me really, I ended up wiped out with a migraine and spent yesterday completely out of it. I haven't felt right all day today either. Too old for rock and roll - folk music for me from now on, with my pipe and slippers.
So with my admin day on Monday and yesterday delirious, this week's not been very productive - lots of mugs and that's about it. Today's been constructive, I handled and decorated the mugs - I like some of them a lot, but I need to get a lot more pots made next week. I had some bad losses again in the last firing and the only consolation was that in spite of the losses there was some good stuff too. I'm trying not to think about the losses too much, although I need to come up with a better plan for the top of the kiln - or a better kiln maybe? Too many brown pots.
Here are a couple of pictures of some 8lb jugs that came out well and a sprigged and rouletted mug.
Got my electricity bill today - need to get back to raw glazing. I was intending to with this batch of pots, all the more so now.
For some reason my camera won't transfer over so I can't show you what's been happening today. Jessica, the girl who came on work experience earlier in the year has been back with me to do some work on the wheel, I've enjoyed her company - feeling a bit fed up at the moment, just tired I think, so it was good not to be stuck with just my own head today. Anyway, a weekend off for a change, at home with the family doing not very much, but that'll be nice, it's been hectic recently.
I couldn't transfer a bit of Love Daddies footage from tonight's practice that I was going to inflict on you as the camera won't do its thing - some other time.
This is an excellent book that I've been meaning to write about on here for a while. It's a beautiful study of the work of the Fishley family of Fremington, North Devon I've taken a number of unsuccessful photographs of it in the past in a vain attempt to put it on my blog. It's now not a problem, because I've just lifted this image from John Edgeler's new website. It features a lot of beautiful pots, (some from my own collection) and well researced text. It even has an interview with me and a couple of pictures of my pots, how exciting is that? John's written a number of superb books, check them out on his site. Here's some information about an exciting event happening in the spring
And this is a show in which I have some pots, that opens on 29th November and runs until 15th December, in the Long Room Gallery in Winchcombe. I'll have some work from my latest firing in this exhibition, which promises to be a dazzling array of sparkling earthenware made by a number of potters, including Philip Leach and my good buddy, Paul Young
Just think of all those lovely pots you know you need for Christmas!
Had a day of clearing up today in readiness to start making again. I also got a lot more clay from the woods processed, then eased myself in with a dozen big mugs. There were some in the firing that I was really chuffed with, so I want to make a load more.
Mugs are always good to have a bit of a play with, just to try out ideas on a small scale - looking forward to having twelve of them to mess about with.
Glad to see Becky's has arrived, Ang, you're next.
Yesterday I spent at home trying to get on top of paperwork - I need to get my business more organised. Tomorrow morning more of that, then handles to put on in the afternoon.
Tomorrow night I have a free ticket to see Motorhead - maybe not my first choice of band, but I'm sure it'll be entertaining and it's always good to see blokes older than me making fools of themselves with guitars.
When I was a student, I had a band that was called something like the Stripey Mollusks. The bass player 'Snuff' aka David Wadsworth is now a potter in Derbyshire and has sent me the following information about his event. It sounds like a good show, try and drop in if you're in the area.
The work of selected potters will be on display from the 28th November for 5 weeks.
From sculptural pieces to wheel thrown vessels, all the pieces will have been through the ordeal of a wood firing.
The pots are fired in a kiln for up to 4 days using wood as the fuel. Flames pass over and through the pots leaving flash marks and deposits of ash as witness to their journey. The ash then fluxes and melts on the pots to give them beautiful warmth of colour. Rich layers of texture make every pot a unique reflection of the passage of flame through the kiln
Local photographer, Tony Fisher, is renowned for his quirky and unusual shots of everyday subjects. For this exhibition he has managed to capture on film the movement of the flames dancing in the kiln’s firebox and circling round the tightly huddled pots in the kiln chamber
Everyone is welcome to the official launch evening on November 28th, 6 – 9pm Please call or email if you require any further information
Pop in anytime to browse through the shop and gallery or enjoy a freshly ground coffee and home-made cake from the coffee shop Open 11am – 5pm, closed Wednesday and Sunday
Hope you can make it
David Wadsworth The Pottery . Wycliffe Road . Alfreton . DE55 7HR T: 01773 832442 M: 07976 506739 E: davidwads@aol.com
Well here are some blurred pictures I snapped yesterday after the kiln was unpacked - zero points for photographic skills.
Here's Tim and Sue's Croyden graveyard clay. Unfortunately I didn't fix the handle very well at the top, so it's split away - poor skills, my apologies T&S, if you can get a little more, I'll make another.
Blurred pots on the bench
More blurred pots on the bench.
The 'bibbed' jug. Well it's interesting as a test piece, to see what happens when Hollyford clay is left bare and fired in the hotspot. I'll be developing that in my next batch of pots. I like the contrast. The clay darkens and flashes and looks a bit like the body used for some of the old French provincial pottery. It also reminds me of a fine baluster jug I saw in the Museum in Manchester. I like the texture too - it's one to think about, even though this little pot isn't maybe all that spectacular. The dusting of copper carbonate has given it a good green speckle, reminiscent of the dusted glazes on medieval pitchers and Tudor greenware - food for thought.
Here's a nice little jug made by Blogger Matt. Matt's pots get better and better each time I see them.
A very medieval looking pitcher with applied bands. Another experimental piece.
This little mug was made by Hannah and decorated by me. There's one further down the page that's made by me and decorated by H.
A Paul Reid teabowl, made in Manchester from Hollyford clay
Alex's little cup - very nice
A jug
and another...............
and another bloomin' jug
Blurred pots on the bench
Jeff, the proud owner of a Simon Hancox harvest jug. Incredible decoration on Simon's pots.
Made by me, decorated by Hannah, snapped up by Jeff
Pots sitting in the kiln
Fancy that, another jug...........
and another
A big tankard (Blogger Andrew called by yesterday and bought this - good to see him looking fit and well)
This is a big pot. I'm really happy with this one, the photograph doesn't really show it very well, there's a lot more going on with it than you can see here. It's very earthy looking. I decorated this one during fiming last month.
A large mug.
Well these were just pics that I snapped yesterday. Some of the best pots are going to my friend Johnny's studio to be professionally photographed. I'll be posting them when I get the pictures back.
A good tidy up, then on to the next kiln load this week - lots of ideas to develop. Some of the pots work, some don't, but it's a developmental process and I'm exploring a few new avenues. I used to really struggle after a firing to get back into the swing - this time I feel really on top of things and can't wait to get stuck in to it again. Woooohooooooooooooo!
Yesterday morning, I met up with Alex and Steve at the workshop to film an interview. Alex is extremely good at drawing the information out of the interviewee - he's done quite a lot of interviews with craftspeople in the past. As a potter himself, with such a pedigree as his, he has an appreciation for the type of works that fuel me with influence and inspiration - he knows exactly which buttons to push to get me enthusing and he pushed them.
Because I spend so much time on my own, I occasionally wonder whether I don't know why I do, what I do - I only have myself to ask questions of myself. It was reassuring to have answers (of a sort), to Alex' questions. My responses made sense to me anyway.
Alex is going to come down for a week sometime to make pots - (then he'll be sick of the sound of my voice), I really look forward to that happening.
And here are some pots that inspire me in my workshop. The pitcher in the foreground was made at Lakes Cornish Pottery, see how the firing has 'flashed' the body. The large spiggot jar is from Buckley in Wales, what a fine bit of potting that is, it's huge. I guess they're late nineteenth, early twentieth century. The bottle on the right is very much a contemporary pot, Brad's 'confident cock' pot, so named because of the rhyme on the other side of it. This is a poor photo, I've had my photographer shoot Brad's pot and I'll put it on here another day. It's made from the clay in the stream, with black slip, and sgrafitto drawn through to the body beneath - a fusion of Devon and North Carolina. I really like this pot, it reminds me of Brad's visit of course and it also makes me think a lot about how the clays here can be used - I'm mixing a decorating slip from this clay which I'll try out next week, thank you Brad.
Alex and Steve left at lunchtime for their journey back north to Manchester, leaving Matt and me to go scrumping for clay in the woods. Here's Blogger Matt giving it some spade action - I did tell him it would work much better with two hands, but he insisted on doing it his way.
Today I'm spending the day at home recovering. I'm really tired. Last night I was dozing off, when I remembered that I'd left the bread for the boys' sandwiches at the workshop. There's a little shop in the village, but it doesn't open until after the school bus has gone, so I had to get up and dressed at 1am, then venture out in the cold and dark and wet, to drive up to Hollyford to get it. Feeling sorry for me yet?
I didn't need that: Furthermore, I didn't need the alarm call at 6.45am when Sprat the cat sent one of my large Svend Bayer jars crashing down the stairs. You surely must be feeling sorry for me now? How such a small cat can knock over such a big pot is beyond me grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!
We had great plans to start the firing at 6am - ha.
After packing the kiln on Tuesday, we'd got home late and so, went to bed very late. Matt and I talk the same language when it comes to pottery, albeit that he does it with and Evesham twang of course and we sat up chatting and looking through many a ceramics book when we should have been sleeping.
So it was a 9am start - the kiln ceremoniously lit using the 'timber' that Tim and Sue sent. There are some pictures of the firing, before and after on Blogger Paul's site, not quite how I remember it, but they say the camera never lies, so that's how it must have been.
Marky Mark came up just after midday.........
and Alex and Steve arrived shortly afterwards to continue with the filming. Here they're setting up to film firebox two, through the kiln shed window. What a pair of top blokes, I enjoy them being around. They say they've captured some great footage.
We were so fortunate with the weather. The morning had started off misty and as the sun grew brighter, the sheep in the field outside began to steam. It was a beautiful dry day and that meant that Alex and Steve were able to film some of the stunning earthenware colours in the autumn landscape.
It was a surprise in the afternoon when two of Ron's students from North Carolina turned up. They'd been lost in the lanes and had had some difficulty finding my workshop, which, if you're unfamiliar with the terrain, seems very remote. It was great to see them and to once again, meet some folk who know Ron. It feels that the time will come soon that I'll get to meet the great man himself, I have met a few of his envoys now.
Here they are, in front of the kiln, Susan and Jane. They were last seen leaving my place for St.Ives - the main road to Cornwall is quite a way from my little shed, along some very remote, narrow, winding lanes. I hope they made it OK and that they're not still driving around rural Mid Devon.
The nighttime was really atmospheric, perfect for filming. Tonight the moon is full, so last night, high in a clear sky, the moon illuminated the countryside, as the owls screeched and twooed. It can be very dark at Hollyford sometimes. Often I've lost my car up there - I never carry a torch which probably isn't very sensible. Anyway, last night we not only had the moon, but all the lights necessary for the filming. It was great to be able to see what we were doing.
Matt and Mark are a brilliant firing team. Hil's still away on residential, so during the evening, I popped home to spend some time with the boys and to cook their tea. It's so good to have those two guys that I can just leave in charge of the kiln without any worries. Mark and I built the kiln together and he has been there for most of the firings I have done, Matt's getting quite experienced at it now - a good team indeed.
At about 10.30, the relevant cones went over and we stopped stoking. Cones are the spikes that are placed inside the kiln chamber, that melt and bend at different temperatures. After allowing most of the embers to burn down in the fireboxes, we sealed the firebox doors with wet clay and capped the chimney, then headed home.
Matt and I stopped on the way back to take a frosty, moonlit walk through the fields, to one of my favourite panoramic views, which looked amazing and allowed a little time to wind down and cool off after the frantic proceedings of the day.
Now, the wait until Saturday morning. I feel optimistic, I tested all the glazes, dried out the kiln, thought carefully about the placement of the pack and used dry timber that I'd had stacked since June. We fired it with care and considered every stoke.
So everything was done right - however, I've learned never to count my chickens before they're hatched. Saturday may be the triumphant re-stocking of the shelves or the despondent creation of a new shard pile - that's the gamble, that's the name of the game, that's why I do things this way, but time will tell, fingers crossed!
I Bricked up the door of the empty kiln today and lit a fire in it to drive off the moisture that it will have taken on board during the last few months of wonderful British weather. It was great to see smoke coming out of the chimney again - two days and it'll be for real.
Today I collected hardwood from my supplier for the start of the firing, then got on with the glazing. The two amazing harvest jugs in the centre of the table are the ones my mate Simon delivered at the weekend - he's a clever potter that man.
Blogger Matt will be here tomorrow to help with the firing, it'll be cool to catch up with him.
Hil's away all week on residential with school(she's a primary school teacher), so it's been my responsibility to help the boys with their maths homework - oh dear.
Mark and I went over to the woods yesterday to get some more clay. I've not done this in a very scientific way so far, grabbing clay from all different areas of the woods. The farmer next door was telling me he has a field they call the Union Jack field, because it has red, white and blue clay in it.
The farmer who owns the woods offered to dig the clay out for me a while ago. Since then, his tractor has become stranded, deep in the mud, with a broken axle. I can't see how he's going to get it out of there. I wonder whether it'll make him more, or less inclined to go in there again. For the time being anyway, it's fine to go over with a shovel and sacks - just a bit tiring carrying it all back.
This time, we searched for what looks to be the best seam - clean and plastic. It's an incredible peachy colour. I've used some from here in the past and it fires beautifully.
In the stream at the bottom of the valley, there are clumps of grey/white clay, which forms the stream's banks.
We scooped a load of this too, which I'm going to try out as a decorating slip. Brad made some pots from this clay when he was here and they have fired a very pale buff colour. I'm so excited by all this, I don't want to go back to using clay from some anonymous hole in Stoke on Trent.
I feel blessed really. When I was a student, over twenty years ago, my work was greatly influenced by North Devon slipware. I'd only ever been to Devon once in my life as a teenager and a second time when I was a student, on the 'potters' trip'. The job at the University brought me here in 1990. Now here I am, with my own workshop, in a place that not only provides all the inspiration, but the materials too.
My old college buddy Simon came down yesterday. He brought with him one of my student pots from twenty one years ago. Here it is beside a bisc pot that's due for firing this week. That's a Devon shape if ever there was one.
Some amazing things are happening for me, I'm blessed with good fortune.
Here's a new addition to the workshop - another electric kiln. A good friend of mine had it at home and wasn't using it so delivered it to me today. Amazing, it's virtually brand new - electronic programmer too. It'll help me speed up my bisc firing schedule no end and will put off having to buy another kiln - that's good as I have no money! I'm a lucky man, I have some very kind friends. This whole operation only works because of the help I get from people.
Here is my other kiln, which was sorted out for me by another good friend - I tell you, I'm a lucky man. The pots on top are drying out ready for bisc firing this weekend.
Here are some of the pots, already glazed inside, waiting for the outside glaze to be applied. You may be able to spot a couple of Hannah's in amongst them.
And here are some with the glaze applied. This is the traditional Galena glaze, the same recipe that was used by Michael Cardew at Winchcombe and in the country potteries before him. Grey-blue before firing, it becomes a beautiful, rich, yellow glass when fired to 1080 centigrade.
Mark's coming over tomorrow, we'll be glazing pots and starting to pack the wood kiln. I think we'll get it mostly done as the majority of the pots are large and will fill it quickly.
We also plan a trip to the woods to get a whole load of clay in while the weather's relatively decent. I'll feel a lot more excited about the firing tomorrow evening I expect - at the moment there's still a lot to do, all that lovely glazing for one thing - I really dislike glazing, you'll know that, I moan about it every time. I've got a firing on tonight in the electric kiln, testing all my glazes, just to make extra sure they're OK - I don't have a very good track record when it comes to glazing, so I'm trying to get my act together.
Five days to go - my first wood firing since the end of July.
Twelve hour days this week, so I'm feeling pretty tired. I seem to be getting quite a few extra pots through for the firing, so it's worthwhile.
Marky Mark's been up to the workshop for the past two evenings to make stuff and to finish off pots for the firing. We hope to get the back of the kiln packed on Saturday. I'll finish the rest off on Monday and on Tuesday when Matt's here.
This is little tiny harvest jug is a commission and will have sgraffito decoration similar to this one
This pot's about simplicity and clay. It's going to be mainly unglazed on the outside, just a bib to cover the slip with its simple stick decoration. I want the flame to toast the bare clay. This particular clay has a fine sand, but none of the coarse grit I have been using - it's a different surface so that makes for a different type of pot.
Green slip with black slip strips and a thumping great handle.
Some finger-wiped bowls - ages since I've done any finger-wiping, lovely to feel the sensation of motion through the cold, wet slip - a potter's privilege.
This remarkable pot has been made by my old college buddy Simon - he sent me this picture this evening. He's bringing this one and some others on Saturday to put in this firing. I'm looking forward to seeing him. These are made from wonderful Fremington clay. The pit is closed now so it's no longer available - a great shame and the end of a very old tradition. I used it for years, creamy, plastic, silk. Note its chocolate colour before it's fired - I miss it.
Alex's pots arrived today along with some made by his student, Paul Reid.
He's a very good potter as you can see by the beautiful jugs in the picture below. He worked at Winchcombe Pottery back in the 1970's with my old friend and inspiration, the late, great Sidney Tustin.
As Dan Finnegan would likely agree, working at Winchcombe Pottery demands skills of the highest quality.
The two fine jugs won't be in this kiln, as they're still under wraps in Manchester, but will probably be in a firing at a later date - what a pair of beauties don't you think?
These pots are the ones that arrived today. They're made from the Hollyford clay that Alex took back with him last time.
In the box with the pots were these two pages of photographs taken by Steve Yates, the cameraman. They're images of medieval jugs in York Museum - wow!!!! Really inspiring, those guys made some fantastic pots, what a treat, lucky me.
Below, an enlargement of one of the images. There's fantastic applied decoration on a number of these - some of them are pretty crazy, crazy in a really good way.
I sometimes look at a book I have about Picasso's ceramics before I start decorating. I used to struggle a lot with confidence when applying marks or sprigs, but studying Picasso's freedom of mark-making helped me to loosen up. These medieval pitchers make me feel the same way - anything goes, just do it with conviction.
I made some of these simple bowls today. They'll be slipped on the inside and just over the rim - I'll leave the outside unglazed in the hope that the flame will leave some interesting 'flashing' during the firing. There was a lovely one of these in the museum in Manchester that I was looking at last week. Much force drying to do over the next couple of days if these are going to make next week's burn-up.
This jug will be green and black
This one has a white slip, over a black slip, the marks drawn through the white, to expose the black slip beneath.
Again, this week's pots are all made from Hollyford clay, which makes me a happy man.
This time next week all these pots will be in the wood kiln getting a darn good roasting - hurrah!
Today I did a load of decorating. I was pretty tired, I felt rough yesterday so slept half the day, got to work late, then had to go back after tea for an evening shift. I have to get the bisc kiln on every day and couldn't afford another day off. It's too small for what I'm trying to do, but it's all I have at the moment so it'll have to do for a while until I can afford to upgrade.
The wood firing's drawing near - a week tomorrow - exciting! It'll be the first one since July. I don't have enough pots really, so it'll be an open pack. Another week of making would have been good, but that's always the way. I realise now that a lot of time went into making all the tableware that went through the electric kiln so I wasn't making pots for this firing. It's not a problem, this is going to be an interesting firing, lots of new things happening, even though it's going to be mainly jugs - big jugs, plus some slightly smaller jugs and a few more slightly smaller jugs - lots of jugs, I just love making jugs, that's the problem. When I say 'jugs' I mean UK jugs, which are the same as US pitchers. Ther is going to be a US jug in there too(a UK bottle).
This is Tim and Sue's clay from the Croyden cemetery. I've been looking at some crazily decorated Medieval pots, so some of the deco in the recent pots have been heavily influenced, including this mug. There are some jugs that I've decorated that are smothered in applied adornments. I'll maybe post them tomorrow if I'm feeling brave enough - certainly I wonder whether they're the sort of pots, like this mug, that you probably have to have an appreciation of English medieval pottery, in order to really like them?
This mug has a black slip, with subsequent pours of white. Blogger Matt's coming down to help Marky Mark and me with the firing - he's a dab hand with a chainsaw. Alex and Steve will be back to do some filming too. I've got some pots from Alex and one of his students coming, made from Hollyford clay that he took back with him last time. Also some of Hannah's and a few made by my good buddy Simon Hancox. Matt and Marky Mark will have pots in there too. There are one or two other pots around still, including one of Brad's. Thinking about it, I may have enough after all! Eek, under pressure, got to get off the computer, Joe's got homework to do on here. Cheers all
In the museum on Tuesday, it struck me how much variation there was in the colour of the clay bodies used to make those old pots and how different raw materials can tell us of a pot's regional origin. Potteries historically were established where there was a good seam of clay and where there was a ready supply of fuel for the kiln, be that wood, or coal, or both.
Of course, the firing affects the colour too and earthenware, being porous becomes ingrained with a patina of grime over the years, ageing and changing(one of its beautiful qualities).
Some time ago Russel Fouts, who makes beautiful pots and also writes a really interesting blog called Pots I Like, brought my attention to a project by a guy called Niel Tetkowski, assisted by a lady named Carla Flati. Samples of clay were sent from all over the world, blended and then fired to make a meter wide disc called The World Mandala. I find it fascinating, check it out and see all those colours.
When I was at Art in Clay this summer, a couple from Croyden, Tim and Sue, gave me a lump of clay to try. It had been dug from a graveyard. I guess I should have made with it yesterday, it being Halloween.
Here it is in the centre of this picture. To the left is my Hollyford clay and to the right, some clay Michael Kline sent me a while ago. I kept it in its raw state because it is such a beautiful colour. I like to think I own a little chunk of the USA.
I finally got around to making with Tim and Sue's clay today. It threw very nicely, silky and smooth and quite similar in its properties to my Hollyford clay. The Mankard in the foreground is made from it, the upturned ones behind are my clay. It'll be interesting to see how it fires. I've a little bit left for handle making.
It was a bit annoying seeing what I'd done to that big pot in the bisc kiln when I opened it this afternoon. Biscuit firings need to rushed through a bit as I'll be glaze firing a week on Wednesday and still have quite a few big pots to bisc. The rest are on top of the kiln drying tonight to avoid any more mishaps - silly me. It was interesting to see one of my big jugs in section however, as I would never have cut one in half to look. They're thinner than I'd imagined, sometimes my pots are quite heavy.
Anyway, I haven't let it bother me too much Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and so pressed on with making some 3lb jugs inspired by some of the museum pots.
I was lucky enough to be able to handle this pot. What struck me as fascinating was that the 'roughly' inscribed lines on the top section, the piece of clay that stops the water slopping out, were applied quite consciously as a decorative feature. Behind this clay section the join to the main body of the pot had been smoothed over so 'perfectly' that the join was undetectable. It's such lines and marks that I'm always very aware of when I'm making pots. You can see them in this rather blurred picture of the neck of one of today's jugs.
Here's another.
And here are a couple of finished pots. Click on the picture to see how these lines on the neck, add to the overall decorative effect.
Well that was something of a ramble, I hope it made sense to somebody, if not, please just humour me.
I got two discs with these pictures on today. My mate Johnny took them a couple of weeks ago. There are loads of images showing each of the decorating processes that I employ.
This is a leaf resist jug. I stuck leaves collected from the lanes on my walk to work, to the pot's surface, then poured white slip over it. When the slip turned 'cheesy', I peeled the leaves off. I like this way of capturing the seasonal flora and with it a record of the time and place, forever. It's a technique used a lot on old North Devon harvest jugs.
This one is a shot of applied decoration being added to a puzzle jug, using fired clay stamps, inspired by the wild Dog Roses that are common in the hedgerows here.
Here I'm drawing through wet, white slip, to expose the pot's body beneath. This is an exciting way of decorating, because it depends upon striking the surface at just the right time in order to gain the type of mark I'm trying to achieve - too soon and the line becomes blurred, too late and the line may become scratchy. You only get one shot at it too, so I enjoy the challenge of getting the composition correct. In order for the decoration to work effectively, the marks have to be applied with swift, confident moves - it's easy to get it wrong. I think a lot about which lines should be beneath and which should be dominant, so the marks are applied in a particular order - does that make sense?
This jug was made during the filming a few weeks ago, so it's a well documented pot. Beneath the white slip is a black slip. The manganese and iron will bleed into the glaze(I hope), softening the lines where the black slip is exposed.
I've been asked to provide images for a couple of books. I had to have two photo sessions with different pots on seperate days, so that the same images are not repeated.
The pots will be in my next firing of the big kiln which is on November 12th. I'm looking forward to some new wood fired work.
