Stuff from yesterday

Here are a couple of good lookin' boys - Marky Mark accompanied me for an interesting evening in the workshop of loud rock and roll and tea drinking.


7lb dishes

Big jugs

Big bottle

Drawing through wet slip.

Lots more decorating to do today, all after an inspiring three mile amble to work through the muddy lanes, in the rain. Oh well, I'd better go or I'll never get there, have a good day everybody, back later.

Tuesday on Wednesday

Evening all

Well I loaded these pictures up last night and didn't have time to write a post, so here are yesterday's pictures, today. I may put up today's tomorrow



This fat 8lb jug will be green when it's fired
and this will be yellow

Mr Nuthatch who has been a daily visitor in recent times
Some big pots - these will fill the kiln up. I've got six of these jugs and three bottles, I doubt that I'll fit them all into this firing, but I'll be ahead of the game for the next.
This is my friend Barry who lives and works a bit further along the lane from Hollyford. He's a fantastic wood carver and makes beautiful Arks, check out his link. Here he's carving a camel for a nativity group.
Barry kindly let me sharpen up my wooden tools on his sanding belt. I don't use many tools, but I can't do a thing without one of these. They're made of beech wood and after a while, they lose their edge as my clay is very coarse and gritty.
Some frosty stuff on the walk to work yesterday
and some more. Pretty.
Well that's it for now, back soon, bye

Monday

Hurrah, my camera is working again after the sugar mishap of last week. Here are some pictures from recent days - it'll only take sweet photos now, ha ha

Well maybe not
Slipped pots, drying in the workshop. I'm having real difficulty getting pots dry at the moment, in spite of the wood burner being cranked right up.
More of the same
A tall bottle, about 20" in height. It's more slender than some that I've made in the past. A couple more of these tomorrow.
Some big jugs - 18" in height. I've made five of these, I'll get the sixth made in the morning. These will fill the bottom of the kiln.
A frosty field along Hollyford lane this morning
Beech leaves, beautiful whatever the season
Frost. It was a stunning day today, warm sunshine this afternoon.
Firing a week on Saturday, then new pots, woohoo

Grrrrrr

On Sunday our washing machine stopped working, today a bag of sugar leaked in my bag and destroyed my camera grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

So no pictures tonight, and instead, a short video of what I'd love to do to our washing machine, if only the stupid thing would spin.




Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!

Monday

It's been a bit frustrating since last time I blogged, as I had a really nasty migraine attack last week that knocked me out for a couple of days. It's taken a little while to regain the motivation and inspiration, but things are starting to take off again now thankfully. Here are some pictures of stuff that's been happening in recent days.

I made half a dozen of these tapered jugs, each a slightly different shape and with a variety of styles of rim. Here I'm giving the jug a good blast, prior to taking it off the wheel. The two small yellow jugs on the shelf, just above my lovely hat, were made by Michael Cardew at Winchcombe Pottery in the 1930's.

These are eight pound fat jugs

Some wet slip decoration on a jar

Here it is, middle front, dried out, alongside its siblings.

I made some big cider tankards last week, tall and softly thrown. Big Harvest Jugs to make tomorrow.
And to end tonight's brief trip to Hollyford Pottery, a picture of a tractor on Hollyford Lane, ooar ooar.

Speeeeeeeeeedy post

Evening all. Well here are the lids that I made yesterday, turned and knobbed.
The place is starting to look like a proper pottery again, for what seems like the first time in ages with lots of wet pots on the shelves. After finishing off yesterday's pots, I made a batch of softly thrown tankards. I'll put pictures up once they're handled. Tomorrow will be a big decorating day and I'll be working late with Marky Mark, so I should get a load more making done too I hope. The firing date is 27th November, so I need to keep up the momentum.
A couple of autumnal pictures from the beautiful walk home, this is the top orchard
and the little bridge over Hollywater. It's mighty pretty out in the countryside at the moment.

Well I have to dash because it's pantomime rehearsal season again and I have to be bathed, fed and out of the house by 7.30. Bye for now

Happy Potting

I got back in the groove today, using a blend that included the new, gritty brick clay. It took a while to get going which was really frustrating, because I was feeling greatly inspired after my museum visits of recent weeks. The clay was too soft for the 8lb jugs that I was trying to make. When the clay's too soft, it's impossible to throw it thinly enough(Apart from lids and footrings I don't turn my pots). The forms lack tension and the clay looks overworked. So I decided to prepare a pile of clay for use later in the week, which I've left on the bench to toughen up, then I cracked on with making some smaller stuff instead.

These are some 3lb lidded jars - I made six of these. The lids look a bit odd because they have yet to be turned and have the knobs thrown on - I'll do that tomorrow. You can see the gritty nature of the clay in this picture. I'm looking forward to seeing what it's like under a thin slip.
This funny little jug is made from a blend of Hollyford field clay and brick clay. It's fantastic to throw with, beautifully plastic. I'm excited about getting this working for me. I hope to have a good percentage of the pots in the next firing made from this clay.
Here are some more 3lb jugs that I made on Saturday. I made a batch of tapered 3lb jugs today, but don't have a picture of them, I'll put one on here tomorrow along with a shot of the jars with the lids finished.

It's great to be making again, better still to be enjoying it. For a while I wasn't enjoying my potting at all. I guess that's the problem of doing the thing that I'm passionate about as a job - when it's good, it's really good, when it's bad, it's desperate. Sometimes it's hard to sustain and forcing it only makes for laboured pots that I'm dissatisfied with and that really, really gets me down. But things are feeling good right now. I like this time of year for making, the autumnal, earthenware tones in the countryside are stunning and when I light up the wood burner in the morning, it doesn't take long to get it toasty in the workshop. I even quite like the dark evenings now that the clocks have changed.

I've spent a lot of time building sheds and sorting out the workshop in recent months rather than making pots, which needed doing. It's been so worthwhile because it's a much easier space to work in now. I needed a break from making, but now I'm really happy to see wet pots on the shelves again and pots that I'm pleased with too. More lidded jars to make in the morning, woohoo!

Happy Tuesday all

Bedford, London, Cambridge, Oxford, Bristol, Home

Back in Devon after a lovely few days at 'home' with my parents.

My Mum's feeling much better now I'm pleased to say. It was lovely to see them and we had a busy, but nevertheless, refreshing break.


This little box, in our bedroom at my folks' place, is the first 'pot' I ever made, some twenty-eight years ago, when I was studying on an Art Foundation course at Tresham College in Kettering. The decoration was created by pressing an 'X' from a set of printing blocks, into the clay before it was assembled. It was made from red earthenware clay and glazed with some kind of pea green glaze which allowed the body colour to show through in thinner areas, but pooled and hung in the detail where thicker - much in the same way as I use slip nowadays, although back then it was much more by luck than judgement. I'm glad my first piece was made from the 'dirty red stuff'.

As we didn't go to the caravan, which had been the original plan, we went for days out instead. My parents live a relatively short train journey from London, so we spent a day in the big City, visiting the galleries. Here's Luke outside the Tate Modern.

This is Ai Weiwei's, Sunflower Seeds 2010.

'Sunflower Seeds is made up of millions of small works, each apparently identical, but actually unique. However realistic they may seem, these life-sized sunflower seed husks are in fact intricately hand-crafted in porcelain.

Each seed has been individually sculpted and painted by specialists working in small-scale workshops in the Chinese city of Jingdezhen. Far from being industrially produced, they are the effort of hundreds of skilled hands. Poured into the interior of the Turbine Hall’s vast industrial space, the 100 million seeds form a seemingly infinite landscape.

Porcelain is almost synonymous with China and, to make this work, Ai Weiwei has manipulated traditional methods of crafting what has historically been one of China’s most prized exports. Sunflower Seeds invites us to look more closely at the ‘Made in China’ phenomenon and the geo-politics of cultural and economic exchange today.'
I had hoped to get to see the new ceramics gallery at the V&A, but unfortunately there wasn't enough time and I don't think Hil and the boys would have shared my excitement, so I'll go back there another day with some pottery chums.

Wandering past Central St Martin's School of Art, I glanced through the window and noticed the blue plaque that I was commissioned to make five years ago, to commemorate the first disastrous gig of the Sex Pistols. The gig had happened in 1975 in that very building. It had been moved into the foyer(previously it had hung in the room where the gig had actually occurred). It was funny to see it again and to remember the panic of trying to get the blue paint dry the night before. Here's a review of the unveiling by Glen Matlock, back in 2005.

So I didn't get to the V&A, but I made up for it the next day with a trip to Cambridge to meet up with our friends Jon and Jo and a visit to the Fitzwilliam Museum, to look at their amazing collection of slipware and other ceramics. The Fitz have a number of these Pew Groups, which form the basis for inspiration for some of the wonderful work made by my good friend, Paul Young.

The Fitzwilliam also houses a number of fantastic medieval jugs which are well documented in a number of the books that I own on the subject, so it's a bit like visiting old friends.

Almost funky enough to be contemporary

These were made with great skill. I love the beautifully applied handle, perfectly designed to carry this jug when full of liquid.

Oh, there it is again. I'll leave it on here, it's well worth a second look!

On our return journey to the West Country, we made a pit stop at Oxford. This is outside the Bodleian Library

And this is inside the Ashmolean Museum

Oooooo

Ahhhhhh

I went there specifically to visit this pot. This is a pot I've studied in great detail in photographs(thanks Tim), but always loved from afar. I think as a baluster jug it has a perfect form and I always look at pictures of this jug when I'm making such baluster jugs - I only wish that I could make them as well and with what seems to be such ease, as those old medieval potters.
Here's a Clive Bowen version. Clive makes some superb 'medieval' jugs, I'm lucky enough to own a good number of them. You can see a lot of Clive's work in mine, he's one of my foremost influences, as a man and a maker - I've spent many hours of my life stoking his huge kiln. I think that slipware makers in general in this country are greatly indebted to him, as he's made the 'dirty brown stuff' acceptable in the galleries, which had always in the past been dominated by stoneware pots.

Look at the crazy applied deco on this one

Michael Cardew, Winchcombe bottle - the greatest of old English slipware. I love the way that the manganese in his black slip brushwork, bleeds into the galena glaze. I'm biased I suppose, but I can't understand how Cardew was ever satisfied again when he moved on to Wenford Bridge and abandoned the beautiful rich colours of his Winchombe earthenware.

And finally, one from dear old Thomas bless his heart.

Further along on our route home on Friday, I dropped in to Bristol, which is now the situation of my nearest surviving brickworks. I used to get coarse brick clay from a brickworks in Exeter, which I would blend with my smooth clay to make a fantastic and unique throwing body. Unfortunately the Exeter works closed a couple of years ago. The manager at the Bristol works has been hugely helpful and sorted me out a few sample bags of the Bristol clay to experiment with. I tried it yesterday, a blend of gritty brick and the smooth, Valentines red that I've been using recently - it seemed to bring the clay to life beneath my fingertips. More excitingly, I made a mix of gritty brick and the freshly dug Hollyford clay and it threw beautifully. If it fires well, I think I may have sorted out a perfect clay body to suit my needs for ever.

So, with the combination of all the inspiration gleaned from my recent museum visits and a clay that really does it for me, I'm going to be getting back to work this week in a very positive frame of mind - which is a good job, because I've got to make enough pots so that I can fire the kiln in four weeks' time - busy busy!

Have a good week all