WPA

The lovely folk from the Westcountry Potters Association came on Saturday. We had a great day - well I enjoyed it and I think they did too.

This is a sgrafitto jug that I made, that everybody had the chance to decorate

It was a beautiful sunny day, so we went down to the stream and dug out some clay. I kneaded it up back in the workshop, then threw it into the 8lb jug on the left. It's wonderful clay that can be thrown straight from the ground.

I threw the large jug in the middle, adding a separately thrown neck, which was added to the pot that had been partially dried with a gas burner. Once the neck was thrown on, I dried the pot further, added the handle, blasted it with the burner again, then slipped and decorated it.

The 8lb jug on the right is covered in black slip and will get a top coat of white tomorrow. I'm pleased with its shape as I haven't thrown for ages.

This is the beautiful cake, baked for me by my friend Alex, that we shared with a cup of tea. It's based on a leaf resist harvest jug that I made for her and Matt a while ago. It tasted as good as it looked. Alex makes some really brilliant cakes, check out her site.....here.

This little book came through the post last week. It's the proof copy of a little book that York Museum are producing to accompany the Honest Pots exhibition.

It details the handling pots that Alex and I made for the exhibition.....

showing the preparation of the clay from the woods.....

through to the fired, finished pots. A great little book for schoolkids, although my image might just frighten the children.

Wet pot pictures to follow this week. At long last, the workshop is in an orderly enough fashion to be able to start making again, as is my brain - I've not been able to get into making recently as the workshop's been a building site. I'll put some pictures up soon of the newly sorted workshop.

I've a few more tiles to make to finish off a tile order, then a kiln load of pots to throw for a November firing.

Hil and the boys break up for their half term holidays on Friday, so we're going to be going away for a week to Suffolk with my parents. I aim to come back to a few shelves full of newly made pots, so lots to do this week.

Bye for now