Cooked

Well this is the story of the last few days of hectic craziness. I've got very behind with this blog and the further behind I get, the harder it gets to catch up, so please excuse this if it's a bit of a ramble, at least it will get me up to date.

Here's the pack on Tuesday night

And here's Marky Mark, loading it in

Firebox 1, lit with the gas burner at 8.30 am Wednesday morning

The new chimney was fantastic

Blogger Paul called by. It's always good to see Paul. he kindly brought me a mug which I've been enjoying using ever since. Marky Mark came up after work and Tilly, Debbie and Clarkey all did their bit. The firing finished at 12.30 am. We were exhausted, but all seemed to go well. Certainly it was a lot less smoky than previous firings.

On kiln opening day, poor Alex peeled the top of his head off on my door frame - it was most unpleasant, like scrubbing the skin off a new potato - sorry Alex! I need to get a length of padding stuck up, it never catches me because I'm used to it, but has claimed a few scalps recently.

So on to the firing.

Well as ever, it was a mixture of good and terrible, but the good were very good and the terrible were fewer than in recent firings, so it was a marked improvement. There are however, still far too many losses, some inexplicable, for instance this pot of Alex' blistered like crazy wherever there was black slip. I think there are a few changes to make in the way we pack next time.

Fortunately, some very important pieces that are to be part of an exhibition entitled Honest Pots, came out successfully. I'll write more about this show later, it's very exciting, in the meantime, check the link to find out what it's about. The show includes some of the collaborative pieces that Alex and Alice Kettle have been working on and some of these were in this firing.

Thankfully, the majority of those pieces came through successfully and the failures can be refired and hopefully, recovered. There are also six of mine in the show, so it was a huge relief to get some new pots through so that I could send good pots that to York and still have enough of my best pieces for the forthcoming Great British Potters exhibition.

Here are a couple of mine, I'll post some better pictures soon. This is a Harvest Jug, probably about 14" in height.

This tapered 'medieval' jug stands about 12".

The weekend continued in hectic fashion with a Love Daddies gig on Saturday night in the courtyard of a local pub. Ringo Starr and Kate Moss stayed there the week before as it was Ringo's boy's wedding(he lives locally). Not to be outdone, we provided our very own John the Drums and of course, some gorgeous Love Mummies. More gigs next weekend and the one after that too, so after a year of no gigs and a change in line up, suddenly busy times in Love Daddy land.

Back to work this morning. This week I'm trying to get my little display room sorted out and the woodshed finished. I have the Westcountry Potters Association coming for a day of demos in a few weeks time and I want the whole place finished and operating in a systematic manner before they come, so I'm concentrating on that before making more pots. I'm also making some more tiles this week for an order I've been working on for a while, 30 done, 20 to go, won't be long Dave and Sue!