A Devonshire Pottery

York Museum have bought my pot!

dougfitch@fsmail.net (doug Fitch) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 18:47:00 +0000

I had a very exciting email today from Helen Walsh, who is Assistant Curator of Decorative Arts for York Museums Trust.

Helen mailed to let me know that the Trust has agreed the purchase of this large baluster jug, from the excellent on-line gallery, Oakwood Ceramics and that it is to be added to the Museum permanent collection.

The Museum boasts the biggest and most important collection of studio ceramics in Britain, so of course I'm thrilled to bits have a piece in the collection, which contains work by many of the great potters who have influenced my life and work.

The museum also houses a spectacular collection of medieval jugs, pictures of which I've had posted on the walls of my workshop for some time now and are very significant pots for me.

Here's an excerpt from Helen's email

Everyone here is really pleased about the purchase as it will sit very well amidst our collections, both archaeological and studio pottery. The money for the purchase has come from the WA Ismay collection and as Bill Ismay loved the medieval jugs in York's collection, I am sure he would approve! We are looking forward to working with you later this year on the country pottery exhibition instigated by Alex McErlain and hope you will be able to come up to York at some point to see the collection.

More about the country pottery exhibition at a later date, in the meantime, thank you to Helen, to the Trustees and to Alex who has done much to make this happen.

What a whopper

dougfitch@fsmail.net (doug Fitch) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 17:21:00 +0000

Another day of snowed-in-ness today and I didn't get to work. The grit lorry came at last and so the road's open into town, but that's as far as it went, the route out of the village the other way along the lane that leads to my workshop is still like the Cresta run, so that's that for another day.

Check this guy out. Here's Jess, with her dad and sis and a monster of a snowman. What a work of art.

Cut off

dougfitch@fsmail.net (doug Fitch) — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 18:08:00 +0000

Snow everywhere today and the village is cut off still this evening. Here's Hil and our friend Dave outside our house this afternoon. Dave's a truck driver and today's the first time in his long driving career that he's not been able to get to work. The council are running out of grit, so they don't come out into the sticks where we live.

Hil's school was closed, as was the boys' so everyone was at home today. They'll be off tomorrow too, the boys' school has already announced it's not opening and there's no way Hil will get out of the villge in the morning, this snow's here for a while. Just got the forecast on and they're saying more snow on Sunday, meanwhile, what we have already, will freeze. The village is in a valley with fairly steep hills out either side, so we very quickly get cut off here.

My mate Poshpipes Clarke came round with his dog Annie this afternoon and kept me company on the walk to the workshop.

Why anybody would want to block the pub door so you can't get in, is beyond me!

A good layer of snow on the workshop roof. We stayed for a cup of tea, then walked home again. It's a good round trip, about six miles with a cuppa half way. We had run out of milk at home and I knew I had some at the workshop, so it was an essential journey - we need our tea quota in our house. It's a sign of the times that we live in a rural community, surrounded by dairy farms, yet we rely on plastic bottles pasteurised milk from the Post Office.

It's such a distraction having the family at home, I really need to get some work done. Oh well, I guess it doesn't happen round here all that often that we get snow like this - although it was only back in February that I was stuck in a pub, in bed with a snoring Love Daddy.

Well, I'll make a better effort at getting to work tomorrow - well maybe.

Snowy Hollyford

dougfitch@fsmail.net (doug Fitch) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 23:41:00 +0000

Snowy weather today. The workshop always looks lovely in the snow because it covers all the rubbish over!
The boys' bus didn't come again today so they were off school again.
I'm pleased to say, I got the car going last night, so drove to the workshop today. It was mighty slippery and became clear I hadn't a hope of getting back up the hill to get home, so I left the car at work and walked home. Lots of snow forecast tonight so it'll be a beautiful walk to work in the morning.

Another day of shelf building ahead, in readiness for getting stuck into a new batch of pots next week. I've lots of ideas - can't wait to start putting them into action on Monday - exciting.

Back to work

dougfitch@fsmail.net (doug Fitch) — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 23:11:00 +0000

Well I got back to work today. I slept really badly last night - I think my body's timeclock is all over the place at the moment and I lay in bed for hours thinking about things that I needed to get done today. Of course, nothing quite worked out how it was supposed to.

To start with, the water authorities were digging the road up so the water was switched off in the village so they could do repairs. That was fine, they'd given us warning and pots and kettles were filled. What was irritating though was that they managed to hit electricity cables, so the power went off - no morning cup of tea - no happy :-(

The roads were really icy this morning. The gritter lorries rarely get out into rural areas like this and we've had several days now where the ice on the road has been compacted by traffic. The boys returned from the bus stop as the school bus hadn't been able to get into the village.

I set off to work, but after about 100 yards my car engine cut out. The diesel light had come on yesterday about five miles from the village - normally there's plenty of fuel when this happens, but not this time, so there I was with no option than to walk the three miles or so to the workshop. Not really a problem, I used to do it all the time and was only saying to Hil last night that I want to start walking again - it keeps me fit and has a really positive affect on my work.

As it transpired, Different Dave had decided to visit me and met me en route, so took me the rest of the way.

This is the icy bridge over Hollywater.

Waiting for me at the workshop was this lovely mug from my Secret Santa, Jim Gottuso . Thank you Jim very much, I love it and it's been put to good use already.

One of the jobs I managed to get done today was fitting this new woodburner. I've had no heating in the workshop since my old burner finally fell apart back in the spring, so it's been chilly sometimes to say the least. I'm an advocate of keeping the place cool and wearing lots of clothes and keeping busy, but it's difficult to dry pots and only a matter of time before the frost gets in and does some damage, so it was good to get this sorted. I'll need to take that shelf down, that's tomorrow's job.

The chimney is hideous, but it's all I've got at the moment so it'll have to do for now, I'll replace it with something better soon.

This is a display dresser that I've been clobbering together in my little 'showroom'. It's all made from scrap scaffold planks and has cost all of £20 to build. It's not great carpentry, but that's the point of it really. It'll be a great place to display pots when it's finished.

I walked home in the bright winter sunshine. I love Devon whatever the weather and the new thermals I had for Christmas worked wonders.

I called into the little church at Stockleigh English...

and visited the Flower Ladies jug.

This week I'm going to get the place ready for full scale production. Pot making starts on Monday. I want to fire the wood kiln at the end of February, so lots to make.

It's about time I had some new, wet clay pots on this blog.

Have a good Tuesday everybody.

Request from The Heritage Crafts Association

dougfitch@fsmail.net (doug Fitch) — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 12:46:00 +0000

The Heritage Crafts Association’s aim is to support and promote heritage crafts as a fundamental part of our living heritage. Since the HCA website went live earlier this year, we have attracted hundreds of supporters all keen to help ensure a sustainable future for traditional heritage crafts.

Going into 2010, we are looking to consolidate this support, building upon our advocacy work with politicians and representatives of key agencies. In order to achieve this, we would like to complement the huge amount of anecdotal evidence we have gathered to date with a statistical analysis of our supporters’ opinions and experiences. To that effect we are asking as many traditional craftspeople as possible in the UK to fill in a simple survey.

The survey consists of ten questions and should take no longer than fifteen minutes to complete. To do so, please go to

www.surveymonkey.com/s/6FNQF6L

We would also be very grateful if you could forward this notice to as many of your craftspeople friends and colleagues as possible, and, if you work for a crafts organisation, to post it in your newsletters and email circulars.

Many thanks in advance for your continuing support.
Robin Wood, HCA Chair.

Farewell 2009

dougfitch@fsmail.net (doug Fitch) — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 14:38:00 +0000

Hello all

Here are a few pictures of the things that happened and the folk I met in 2009.

Building took priority this year. In January, the workshop looked like this.....

And now, a year on it looks like this. Note how the end of the rainbow has grown just a little nearer in a year.

There's still a lot to do, but it's a much improved space. I set out to use as many recycled and scavenged materials as possible - windows from the local tip etc.. John the Drums and Matt who owns the place are both builders and brought me several van loads of scrap timber from the building jobs they'd been working on, cheers chaps for making this possible.

I had some fantastic, outstanding help with the construction from Different Dave who mixed and poured concrete in the hottest of weather(we did get a bit this year)

and Marky Mark who was his ever supportive self, big time thanks to them.

A big, massive juicy thank you to my good friends Matt and Alex who own the workshop and let me do all this along their lane. Without their support I can't imagine that I'd have a business at all. Here's Matt with their little girl Tilly and of course, Digger the dog with whom I've shared many an inspirational lunchtime walk.

My 'trainee' Jess went from strength to strength with her pot making in the early months of the year which was extremely satisfying for me to see. She's about to set up her own small workshop at home and I hope that the things that she's learned at Hollyford will continue to develop.

2009 was a good year for meeting in person, many of the virtual friends I share my time with through this blog. What a marvel the internet is and what a tremendous support all my blogging chums out there have been over the year, thank you all. I spend my days alone and my evenings in your company(does that make me sound a bit of a saddo?!)

Here are a few pictures of some of the bloggers I was lucky to hang out with during the summer.

This is the amazing woodturner Blogger Robin Wood, who I met at Rufford this year. Robin is also the founder of the Heritage Crafts Association(please sign up if you haven't already!).

It was a delight too meet Blogger Ron Philbeck(left) and his wife Sarah who came over from North Carolina to visit. They came to Art in Clay at Hatfield House, where we also linked up with Blogger Paul Jessop, here on the right.

Ron and Sarah came and stayed with us for a few days, during which time we visited the Mecca of the British Studio Pottery movement, The Leach Pottery, St. Ives.

It was a propper blogger's day out. To explain the next few pictures, here's a shot of dear old Bernard himself back in the 1920's

In the picture, in front of Mr Leach's fireplace in philosophical debate are left to right, Ron, me, Blogger Andrew Douglas and Blogger Hannah McAndrew.

I went again a week later with a certain lady from Adelaide and met Blogger Richard James, who is the technician at the Leach Pottery and also makes some very lovely wooden furniture.

And here's the girl herself, Blogger Angela Walford , who came over from Australia and stayed with us. We had a great time making pots together at the workshop.

The final blogger shot is of Blogger Dan Finnegan from Virginia, USA. A great man, with a great beard. Also in the shot, Andrew, Hannah and my good chum Blogger Matt Grimmitt.

I spent quite a few magic moments with Matt this year - remember the Smoker Stoker?

And with Blogger Paul - here we are at a show at his place during the summer.

This picture was taken at the Derby Boys show at the Long Room Gallery in Winchcombe, with my college contemporaries from back in the golden '80's, Nic Collins and Simon Hancox and our tutor from those days, Tim Willey to whom I am greatly endebted.

Alex McErlain's film Hollyford Harvest was finally finished, submitted and selected for the 7th International Film Festival in Ceramics and Glass in Montpellier, France. The film has since taken my little shed in Devon, all around the world via Facebook and is to be released for sale early in the new year. It's been a real highlight of the year spending time with Alex - we share the same passion for the English tradition of earthenware pottery.

It's been a year of many demos at the various shows, this one at The Contemporary Craft Fair.

I think I did six this year, thankfully growing in confidence with each. The first one I did early in the year caused me so much stress I had a terrible migraine all the day before - it's pretty scary making pots and talking in front of a room full of people and certainly a contrast to the solitude I'm accustomed to in my workshop. Now I really enjoy it - I think.

My pots have developed a lot too. Sgrafitto jugs have been a particular favourite that I've added to my repertoire....

of combing, drawing, sprigging etc. It's funny looking back through all these pictures, because all these pots have gone to new homes. A big, big thank you to all the folk who now own them.

Well that's about all for this year I think. The Half Moon Inn beckons, although I'm feeling pretty tired and might just have a quiet night in with a seemingly endless stream of Michael Jackson videos on the telly.

Ah, change of plan, friends have just arrived to drag me, albeit reluctantly, to the pub, so this rambling blogpost is unfinished. Thank you to all of you who I haven't mentioned.

My very best wishes to everybody out there, here's wishing you a happy and prosperous 2010, catch you next year.

Bye

Bideford pots

dougfitch@fsmail.net (doug Fitch) — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 00:34:00 +0000

Hello everybody, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. We had a lovely time here, in spite of a nasty dose of man flu, which is thankfully on its way out now.

Well, as promised here are some photos from the Bideford firing courtesy of Blogger Matt.

The pancheon is one of mine, the casserole and jar are Philip's. He had some very fine pots out of the kiln.
Some more - Matt's jugs in the foreground.

This is Kathy Niblett, author of many pottery books, who used to be the curator at the Potteries Museum in Stoke on Trent and is now editor ot the CPA newsletter. She's always been a tremendous support of our firing events. In her hand is one of my jugs which is now in her collection.

On our way back from Bideford, we dropped off some kiln shelves that had been loaned by Clive Bowen. This is Clive's kiln. I've spent many an hour stoking this beautiful, huge two chambered structure over the last twenty years.
And here is Clive's showroom - he's an amazing potter who, as you can probably see, has had a massive influence on my work.

Well that's it for now. Tomorrow we're off to visit my parents for a few days, before returning to Devon on New Year's Eve.

Enjoy the rest of your holiday all, take care, have fun, keep warm or if you're Ang, keep cool.

Toodlepip

Merry Christmas

dougfitch@fsmail.net (doug Fitch) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 18:39:00 +0000

Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas.

Pictures

dougfitch@fsmail.net (doug Fitch) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 12:02:00 +0000

Well I discovered today that my 2 mexa pixel brick of a camera does still work in spite having landed heavily on the floor a couple of days ago - some of the functions are knackered, but the auto and close up settings still do what they're supposed to do and as they're the only ones I use, all is good, hurrah!

I like this little camera because it's so basic, just point and press, so I was sad to think I'd need to replace it. Cameras don't last long in my workshop as they get full of dust - I've already killed two more sophisticated ones, but they are an essential tool of the blogger and pictures so often can say more than words, which is good because so often there isn't the time in the day to write too many words. Anyway, before I do write too many words and send you into a deep sleep with my sentimental camera ramblings, let's get on with the picture show.

Here are Matt and Philip opening the kiln on Sunday morning.

And inside, the treasure is revealed. The back of the hatted head on the right belongs to my friend Roop who pots in a nearby village. The hat on the left is of course Philip Leach who once again organised the firing perfectly

The middle stack had moved during the firing and my harvest jug got himself a new big brother - a huge shark-faced jar made by Nick Chapman.

It was a brilliant week, great spending some time chewing the fat with Blogger Matt, who now has some beautiful pots from the firing that you can see here

Today I've been in a very chilly workshop doing some glazing. This would have been a much quicker and easier task had I not have left the glaze bucket in the car after bringing it back from Bideford. I took the lid off to find it had frozen, so then had to defrost it in the kiln. Winter's here for sure, although we don't have snow here like much of the country.

Well lucky me, I have to go to town again and become a crazed Christmas shopper - oh joy.

Back soon, in the meantime, here's a picture of a toadstool and some frost, on a log.

Fired

dougfitch@fsmail.net (doug Fitch) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 02:24:00 +0000

It was a freezing cold day on Friday when we fired the kiln. The ground was rock hard with frost and the wind was cutting. As the day went on, the frost thawed and the grass surrounding the kiln turned to mud. The firing went smoothly. Here's my good friend and hero, Clive Bowen stoking firebox 2.

We fired on into the early evening. Here's Matt in the park, in the dark.

Sunday morning we drove back to Bideford for the opening and unpacking. It was a great firing and all the kids' tiles came out beautifully. I think they will all be on display in Appledore for their arts week next year. Unfortunately my camera has finally given up, so I'm waiting for Matt's pictures of the opening which I'll post as soon as I get them.

It's been a very busy and tiring week, with much going on in the workshop too. More about all that at a later date. Time to start thinking about Christmas now, although I have a few things still to do in the workshop so I'll be in and out. I have to brave the crowded streets of Exeter tomorrow. As I type, the cats are destroying the Christmas tree, goodness knows what a mess we'll come down to in the morning. Goodnight all.

Greetings from Bideford

dougfitch@fsmail.net (doug Fitch) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 00:27:00 +0000

The trouble with blogging is that when there's loads going on and lots to write about, there's not enough time to do it. So just to let you know I'm still alive and kicking, here are a few pics of what's going on.

This week I've been in Bideford with Blogger Matt, packing the bottle kiln in the park. The kiln contains a lot of tiles made by local school children. You can read all about the project.......here

This is a big wood fuelled updraught kiln which is built next to the Burton Art Gallery.

The Burton Art Gallery is home to a wonderful collection of old North Devon slipware, such as this huge harvest jug - all the stuff that excites us earthenware types.

Matt could barely hide his excitement.

Philip Leach packing

And I did a bit too.

Matt had a go on Mr Cardew's kickwheel

And I did a bit too.

Tomorrow we fire the kiln. Philip is starting it off in the early morning, Matt and I will go up and take over from Clive Bowen who is on second shift. We should finish in the early evening after a visit from the Mayor of Bideford. He's recently been in North Carolina, visiting an archeological site in search of links between Bideford and the United States. You can read all about it....... here

We open the kiln at 12 noon on Sunday.

I'll be back with more later, bye for now

I'm going to France!

dougfitch@fsmail.net (doug Fitch) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 22:33:00 +0000

I had a phonecall yesterday from Alex to tell me that the film that he and Steve made at my place, Hollyford Harvest, has been selected for the 7th International Film Festival on Ceramics and Glass.

It's a major achievement to have been selected, many congratulations to them and also to John, the editor, who I have yet to meet, he must be sick to death of the sight and sound of me.

The really exciting news for me, is that they're taking me out to Montpellier with them. I bet the south of France is lovely in March - and a whole weekend of films about ceramics - well what a treat!

Apparently the film is going to be shown on a huge screen in a 2000 seater cinema. Alex tells me that there are very few empty seats at these screenings. So it'll be odd to see my workshop so big, Marky Mark and Blogger Matt huge, and the Love Daddies larger than life. It's going to be very, very strange.

Here's what the letter of acceptance said:

7th international film festival ON CLAY AND GLASS
19TH, 20TH & 21ST OF MARCH 2010 | CORUM | MONTPELLIER | FRANCE

Dear Alex, John and Stephen,

We are pleased to inform you that your film « Hollyford Harvest » has been selected for the official competition of the 7th International Film Festival on Clay and Glass and we would like to congratulate you for it.

Your film has also been selected for the Youth Festival, which is held every year, in several French cities. We will shortly get back to you on this subject.

After receiving more than 160 films from 33 countries, the viewing committee, responsible for the selection, and consisting of representatives from the crafts, press and cinema fields, has shown high regards for your film.

« Hollyford Harvest » will be presented on the 20th or the 21st of March 2010 at the Corum in Montpellier among 22 competing films.

The jury will give away 5 awards, and the festival-goers will decide the winner of the Public Award by vote.

We would be pleased to receive you in Montpellier and take care of your accommodation. We will contact you to discuss further the terms of your stay....

If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact us, we shall remain at your entire disposal at all times.

We are looking forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully,

Françoise Aitgougan

Culture Manager

Cheers Alex, Steve and John, well done chaps.

Ron-line exhibition

dougfitch@fsmail.net (doug Fitch) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 09:35:00 +0000

My good chum in the States, Ron Philbeck launches an on-line exhibition today. To check out his fabulous slipware, click.......

here at 1pm EST, I think that is 6pm BST

Hope it's a fantastic sale for you Ron.

Back later, have a nice day y'all.

Monday

dougfitch@fsmail.net (doug Fitch) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 08:22:00 +0000

It's Wednesday since I last blogged - everything has been so hectic for the past few days.

The show in Exeter is going well. I made some good sales on Friday night at the opening and chatted to interesting folk all evening, but didn't get any decent photographs. Here are a couple that I snapped in the workshop last week when I was working out which pots to take. I'll get some better pictures when I go in to the show to invigilate later in the week.

I took my wheel in to the venue and did a talk and demo on Saturday, in which I threw a large jug in two parts and with a good old blast from my gas burner, was able to handle it, slip it and decorate it, to a state of completion within an hour.

The show's on until Saturday night.

This week I'm going to try and get on with sorting out the workshop which is utter chaos both inside and out at present as none of the building work has been completed. There are piles of stuff everywhere. Maybe I'll build some kind of display unit to hold finished work so that there's somewhere to put it when I bring it back from the show. Also I want to get some pots made this week to fire in the Bideford kiln later in the month. More about that soon.

Oh well, I'd better get to it before Facebook Scrabble distracts me. Hmm, a day off playing Scrabble in the warm, what a nice idea.

Have a good start to the week everybody.

Quicky

dougfitch@fsmail.net (doug Fitch) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:47:00 +0000

Just popped home to do some admin work, so a quick blog while I'm at it. I've come home as I have to get all my show applications completed and in the post. Every year I leave them to within days of the deadline, even though every year I swear that I'll get organised and have them in early. Oh well, maybe next year - but probably not.

Here's the buzzard harvest jug and an 8lb jug infront.

Once again today, the end of the rainbow was beyond my workshop, so the crock of gold still eludes me.

Poor thing. This wonderful creature was in the lane when I walked Digger at lunchtime. They don't have any road sense, so a lot of them get hit by cars. The carrion crows will eat well today, nature doesn't waste much.

Working this evening with Marky Mark so off back to the workshop in a moment. Back later.

Cheers all.

Finished!

dougfitch@fsmail.net (doug Fitch) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:16:00 +0000

I finally finished these two sgrafitto pots at 4am, so suffice to say, I'm a wee bit tired today.

This is a close up of Mr Buzzard, who has his beady eye on a pigeon who is flying nearby. My drawings are far from anatomically correct, but that's not something I'm too worried about, as long as it's clear what they're supposed to be. The black lines are where I roughly draft out the shapes before I cut into the surface and will burn away in the firing.

The old harvest rhyme on this one says, 'The potter fashioned me complete as plainly doth appear, for to supply the harvest boys with good strong English beer'

A while ago I was walking to work and came across the magnificent spectacle of two cock pheasants having a fight. They may be some of the stupidest birds around, but they certainly know how to scrap. For some reason I decided to try and draw them onto the side of this puzzle jug. Whether they really look like pheasants is questionable - I might just have to pretend it's a pair of phoenix(phoenixes, phoeni) having a squabble.

Beautiful Devon and Digger the dog

dougfitch@fsmail.net (doug Fitch) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:25:00 +0000

A beautiful sunny day at Hollyford today, so I was able to sit in the kiln shed with the doors open listening to the Buzzards while I scratched away the surface of this big harvest jug. The decoration is taken straight from the North Devon tradition, but there's a lot of me and a lot of Hollyford in the drawing too.

Here are a few pictures from my lunchtime walk with Digger the dog in the stunning Devon countryside. A lot of this stuff has ended up on the surface of the big jug.

This is a marigold in Matt and Alex' garden. Daisies are a favourite of mine. Did you know they're called daisies because they open in the morning and close at night, just like the day's eyes? There you go.

Ivy flowers. There are still quite a few bugs and bees around the ivy at the moment. We've not really had much in the way of frost yet so I think a lot of the insect life is still alive and buzzing.

As we were walking along the track, a big fox came running out of this field and trotted along in front of us, much to Digger's delight. The hunt was here last week with horses and hounds, but Mr Fox must have kept himself well out of the way.

There aren't many of these little strawberries left, they're always a treat when I find them, so much wonderful flavour from a berry the size of a pea.

Cutleaf cranesbill

Blue sky

And more with golden autumn leaves

A big old oak tree

Ferns

An old combine harvester.

Work for me tomorrow, I need to get this jug finished. A visit from some friends on Sunday.

Have a lovely weekend everybody, bye for now xx

Come to the show!

dougfitch@fsmail.net (doug Fitch) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:32:00 +0000

Featuring

Pauline Zelinski

Jenny Southam

Tilly Young

Nic Collins

Taja

Pauline Lee

Doug Fitch

Laurel Keeley

Isabel Merrick

Jackie Leighton-Boyce

Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaad head

dougfitch@fsmail.net (doug Fitch) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:25:00 +0000

Sometimes things just don't go right and I think this picture says it all!

I had a migraine attack last night and all day today, so the day's work had to be done this evening. I really wasn't in the right frame of mind for decorating but everything was getting too dry so I just had to go for it.

I had Marky Mark for company - we try and work every Wednesday evening. Blogger Paul was asking how the new racking was going. There's some of it next to Mark in the picture. It came from Cardew's Wenford Bridge pottery so must have been used by some amazing potters.

Here's a pressed dish that Mark made, awaiting bisc firing. There's a lot of Picasso influence in his work. I'll post a picture when it's fired if he's happy with it.

The rest of these pictures are from yesterday. It was a beautiful day, sunshine and a warm breeze so I was able to dry pots outside for the first time in ages.

Here are some moneyboxes - a cockerel on a haystack....

This funny one takes its influence from old saltglaze moneyboxes that were made in the form of little houses.

And here are a pair of lovebirds, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwww

Baluster jugs always look a bit odd until the handles are applied, these make more sense to me now than they did when I made them.

Here's a picture for Tim. Three different mug shapes I've been making. I've got half a dozen of each, I want to make three other shapes so that I can make six of six - it just appeals to my compulsive obsessive behaviour of making things in sixes - it's a blokey thing I think.

Right, off for a bath and a good night's sleep ready for a full day tomorrow.
.
Happy Thursday everybody xx

Monday

dougfitch@fsmail.net (doug Fitch) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:11:00 +0000

Baluster jugs

Earthenware colours

Mugs

Earthenware colours

Sunday

dougfitch@fsmail.net (doug Fitch) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 19:10:00 +0000

I really didn't want to go to work today, it being Sunday, but once I'd got there I was really pleased that I'd gone. I managed to get a lot done. I mixed glazes, a job that I've been avoiding. I always put it off, but then feel good once I've done it - and it's never that bad a job really - no doubt I'll put it off as long as possible again next time.

The sun was shining, after a couple of days of crazy storms. (Frank got home to Cornwall safely the other night by the way, but by all accounts it was a fairly hairy journey.)

The view from my workshop window looks out to the woodland that has now lost much of its foliage.

Here is my latest little flower bed, I made it last week. The torrential rain, running off the roof washed some of the plants right out of the ground. The wind had been so strong, that it burst my doors open. Fortunately a neighbour jammed a pallet against them. They don't seem to want to close properly now, I think perhaps the shed may have twisted a little during the storms - maybe it's time to hammer in a few more screws - maybe bend them over this time for extra strength.

These are some small jugs, made from a pound and a half of clay. I put the handles on today. I've been making a lot of bigger pots recently and it took a while to get back into making smaller pots.

I made a few mugs, just simple cylinders and some moneyboxes onto which I'll model birdies tomorrow if they're dry enough.

Pots drying in the kiln shed.

I did a lot of decorating today too, drawing through wet slip with a rubber tool, the bare structure of the trees finding their way onto the surface of the pots.

Yum, shiny wet slip.

Combed black slip. I really like to work through wet slip, it's such a direct approach to decorating.

By contrast, the decoration of this sgrafitto jug is a much slower process.

Baluster jugs tomorrow.

Have a good week everybody.

It's Friday!

dougfitch@fsmail.net (doug Fitch) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:55:00 +0000

I've been playing signfitter this afternoon, helping my mate Frank put up the signs on a pub at Teignmouth, by the seaside. Unfortunately I was supposed to br navigating and as I have no sense of direction, it took rather longer to get there than it should. By the time we arrived at the pub the sky was growing darker by the minute. It was crazy weather and the sea was crashing against the sea wall - not great weather to be up a ladder, holding up big signs.

The wind and rain has got worse this evening and we had to drag a tree off the road that had blown over on the way back. Frank insisted on driving home to Cornwall, I wish I'd been able to persuade him to stay. Next door's fence has just ended up in our back garden, it's really wild out there.

This is some of the stuff going on at the moment. A lot of it is for a group show I'm part of in Exeter, I'll post details later.

I'm going to sgrafitto this puzzle jug. I'm also working on another large sgrafitto harvest jug, it's taking ages, but will be pretty when it's finished.

This is a Tyg.

A Tyg is a large English mug with three or more handles dividing the rim into sections for several drinkers. These tall, black-glazed, red-bodied drinking vessels were produced from the 15th century through the first half of the 17th century, peaking in popularity during the 16th and 17th centuries. Some were made with as many as nine handles.

The multiple handles also allow hot drinks to be passed around without pain.

Tygs were made in large quantities at Wrotham in Kent and in many Staffordshire factories. Examples have surfaced at 17th century American colonial sites, as well as in the UK. (Wikipedia)

And some little jugs. I made these two days ago and they're still too soft to put handles on. Maybe tomorrow.

Happy weekend all

Alex McErlain and Alice Kettle

dougfitch@fsmail.net (doug Fitch) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 01:16:00 +0000

Here are a couple of pictures you may find interesting. Remember the pots Alex McErlain made from Hollyford clay that were then decorated by Alice Kettle?

Well here they are at the Knitting and Stitching show at Alexandra Palace.

Alex took to the sewing machine as this was a collaborative project and stitched that beautifully embroidered fabric - stunning, I love it.

Here's what he said about it,

'The stitched elements of Knit and Stitch images includes some of my efforts at sewing where I made stitched drawings, mostly of jugs.

Some large fabrics have been machine stitched by computer from my real drawings of pots, this is something Alice has been exploring stretching the boundaries of that machine technology (its amazing how much like my drawings the work is.)

And some of the stitching was done jointly such as the stitched cloths which are made for the pots to stand on.'

The work will be shown again at Harrogate Knitting and Stitching Show next week (Thurs - Sun) .

Tuesday

dougfitch@fsmail.net (doug Fitch) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:47:00 +0000

It was another soggy day at Hollyford Pottery today, although it's mild for the time of year. At the moment I haven't got a wood burner in the workshop, so it's taking ages for pots to dry - I'll need to get that sorted out in the next week or two, before the hard frosts start.

This is a large harvest jug I decorated today, it's about 15" high. I decorated bowls too, but didn't take any pictures.

Freshly applied scroll handles on last week's 8lb jugs.

That's all for now, panto rehearsal beckons.