Big pots at Gnarley Nic's

Day one on Nic's course was really good. We made pots by the coiling and throwing technique. This involved throwing the base section of the pot, blasting it with a gas burner until dry enough, before adding and throwing more coils, blasting and drying between each.

There were seven of us on the course in Nic's cosy workshop.

He's a good teacher.

'Ooooooh' said Ms McAndrew, 'just look at my lovely big pot'

Here's my effort. I didn't like the shape much, but none of the pots will be fired, it's simply an exercise in learning the technique - lots more practice needed. It was weird to be using grey clay that didn't get me dirty, unlike my usual red stuff that seems to cover everything in my life.

Here's The Master in action. If you'd like to learn his techniques, he's written a book all about how it's done, called Throwing Large.


If you haven't seen the Goldmark film about Nic, it's worth taking a few minutes to sit back and watch.

Tomorrow we'll be making tall, narrow pots by his 'doughnut' technique. If that makes no sense to you, you'll just have to buy his book!

I came home tonight to spend a last evening with Luke before he goes back to college. Hannah and I will be heading off to Cornwall, breaking the journey at Frank's for a flying visit after the course on Sunday, before carrying on down west to St Ives on Monday to visit a friend at the Leach Pottery. We'll be back home on Monday night.

In the workshop on Tuesday to work on some slipware collaborations.

That's all for now
Happy weekend everybody.