Friday

Some funny little fat mugs, sprigged and slipped, loosely based on the ones made in seventeenth century Staffordshire.



Three pound jugs I made yesterday(like I need more jugs) - I've decorated some of them today with leaf resist - the lanes are full of amazing foliage at the moment and it's such an inspiration.



Yesterday evening I had a visit from a group of students from West Hertfordshire College. They were a good bunch and stayed a while - I did a harvest jug making demo for them, force dried with the gas burner and finished with a scroll handle. Here are a few of them clutching their purchases, with Marky Mark behind, ever stylish in lime green nylon. Thanks all for your support, come again some time.



It was a beautiful day today and even though I knew I needed to be making pots, I had to get outside and cut the grass - it was getting really long out there. If I don't keep on top of it, the brambles on the grassy bank under the oak tree get themselves going. It looks really pretty out there now.



As soon as the firing's over I'm going to finish off the sheds, then build some raised beds which will be stocked with plants from the marvelous Futureprimative web site, where you can purchase stunning plants, groovy soap and fabulous Matt Grimmett slipware as depicted above - check it out today. (Surely that must have earned me a discount?!)


It's going to be a working weekend, so an early start tomorrow. Moneyboxes, bowls and pressed dishes to make. Counting down to firing day, a week on Monday, when I will be assisted by the Princess of Slipware herself.



My friend Arwyn Jones, a very good potter who lives near Plymouth is coming to visit me at the workshop in the morning. I haven't seen him in ages, so I'm looking forward to catching up with him. This is a picture of one of his breadcrocks.

Happy weekends all, hope the sun shines for you.

Our Bernard up to his tricks

Just got in and it's midnight so I'm off for a bath then bed, I'll share today's stuff tomorrow.

Many thanks to David Asterisco for sending me this.

Country capers

I had a stall at a local country fair today. It was supposed to be an open air event, but the rain was torrential, so we all set up inside huge barns. It was a waste of time as regards selling, but it was good fun and great to see a lot of my friends that I hadn't seen for a while, so I didn't worry about sales and enjoyed catching up with fellow craftsfolk chums - potters, signwriters, blacksmiths, etc.



I shared a pitch with my good friend Paul Cook of Wood Art Words. Here are some of his wonderful carvings.



And here's the man himself.



This timber frame is part of the roof structure of the Love Daddies practice room, that is being made by green oak builder friends of mine, Tom and Ben. They took it along to demonstrate their trade.



Hil and Joe came up after school and got to hang out with Johnny Kingdom. Ah, the excitement of living in the West Country.

I've got to work sooooooooo hard for the next few days now, lots of pots needed for a firing a week on Monday, so late nights to come.

Monday morning

Off shortly to see a man about a bottle kiln - can't say much more about that at the moment, so I'm just teasing you, ha ha.



Here are some of the pots I decorated yesterday. I really didn't want to drag myself up to a damp, dark, dirty workshop on a Sunday afternoon, but it had to be done. Once I got there and settled in, it was fine. The woods opposite my little shed are wonderful at the moment, verdent and full of bird song. I'm going to go over there later today to get some clay from the various seams to use for slip tests in the forthcoming firing - I still want to do some experiments with naked clay in the hot spots and it'll be interesting to see how the different slips 'flash' with the flame.

I've decided to sgrafitto the two big Harvest Jugs. They'll take many hours to complete, but will, I hope, be worth the hours of scratching away dry slip. In preparation, I brought home some of the local flora last night and spent a couple of hours drawing. I want to capture the essence of the plants, birds, trees etc. that I see daily around me, but in a naive style rather than a literal interpretation - a tricky thing to get right.



This pot looks really messy at the moment - well it is I suppose, but when it's gold and black and green, it'll look very different.



The combing on this one will become more evident after firing.



This one will be green.



Well I have to head off now onto big, busy main roads, nasty. I'll leave you with a picture of this little fellow/ess, awwwwwwwwww.

Happy Monday all, catch you later.

Stuff from Thursday

This is some of the stuff I was doing on Thursday.

More decorating to do later, I'll post the pics this evening. Yesterday I was supposed to be making the last of the big stuff, so I'll need to do that later too.



These harvest jugs are bigger than the ones I made last week, so they'll take a bit more decoration. I haven't worked out quite what I'll do with them yet, probably much the same as the last lot, drawing through wet slip - just a bit more of it than on the others.



More tall baluster jugs. I've got four of these made and four large tapered jugs. These will need slipping today too.



This will be black and gold and green when fired.



I made a rubber comb with bigger teeth to cut through the slip with a broader line which I tried out on this jug - I like the stronger mark that it leaves. I'm looking forward to putting it to use on some pressed dishes.

Right, off to town, back later.

Devon in the Spring

Just recovering from a nasty migraine, haven't had one for ages.



The herbaceous borders outside the workshop have burst into life too and most of the stuff that I planted last year has come back.



Here are some pictures that I took earlier in the week, of the hedgerow alongside the lane to my workshop. The countryside is amazing at the moment.












I've got to go into Exeter now to buy the boys new shoes - an expensive business, then off to the workshop later to catch up on yesterday's lost time. I'll post some more pics in a moment of Thurday's work.

Juuuuuuuuuuugs

Evening all.

Here are the harvest jugs I made last week, all decorated.



This is the huge one.



And here are the others.











The little oak tree in the workshop garden is in full leaf and inspired the drawing on these.



I'm starting to feel much more 'in the groove' now. There's always an initial panic when the shelves are empty, but I can see the pots starting to build towards a kiln full, I reckon I've got about a third of a slack kiln load.



These are eight pound jugs, made yesterday and handled today. They'll be slipped tomorrow and will be mostly black and green - the harvest jugs are all going to be yellow and amber.




These are some tall jugs I made today. The baluster is about 21" tall and won't fit inthe bisc kiln unless it shrinks a bit which I'm sure it will. I need to make more big pots tomorrow.

It's been a long day today, I worked until 8pm, so I'm exhausted. I was supposed to be going to the supermarket tonight, but it'll have to wait for another night, I'm off to bed. Goodnight all.

Saturday

Thanks all for your wishes for the little kitten. Sadly we failed, in spite of feeding it every three hours through the night and day, which was crazy and exhausting, but once we'd made the decision, we had to go with it, even though it meant getting up in the middle of the night and coming home from work on feeding duties. Oh well, that's the course of nature, we did our best, I wonder how many songbirds' lives have been spared?



The other little one's doing fine, but I can already tell that the boys are getting attached to it - I really don't want another cat, but it seems like I may not get the choice, apologies to Dave and Sue, looks like this little one might be staying.



I've been here today, The Coach Hall at Fursdon House, exhibiting with a group of artists. We each did work in response to a walk we took around the grounds of the house, some time ago. There are some great paintings, drawings and photograps in the show.

I used to live on the Fursdon Estate and I felt very much at home, back there in the peace and tranquility of that beautiful place, I miss it, we had some happy times there. I was living there five years ago, when I first started my workshop and began making pots again for a living, so it's still very much a part of what I do now.

Several of my pieces sold, including a puzzle jug which was bought by a lady who used to be a neighbour and good friend of Katherine Pleydell-Bouverie. We had a really interesting chat, she well remembered Michael Cardew's visits when he would break his journey between London and Cornwall at KPB's.



Here's what's been going on in the workshop this week. This baluster jug will be golden with manganese stripes when it's fired.



I made some harvest jugs, six of the smaller ones and one big 'un nearly twenty inches tall. More big pots next week, the bottom of the next kiln load is going to be full of them. The clay was a bit too soft so I only got this one made, another two collapsed. I'll try again on Monday, it's hard work for my skinny little arms.

Facebook tells me that it was Michael Kline's birthday this week, many happy returns MK

Wednesday

Here are some pics of the kits.



This little fella/ess is the healthy one




Sadly this little lady isn't doing so well. She's the one that we found cold and seemingly lifeless under Luke's bed. She's still struggling to feed from her mum, so we took her to the vets this morning. The vet gave us some syringes and some formula food which we have to feed her with every two hours. She's not very good at taking it. So a long night ahead trying to save the life of this tiny little thing so that it can grow up to kill lots of tiny little things. I guess the next few hours are critical.



So I didn't get to work until late this afternoon which is pretty frustrating as I'm up against a tight deadline, but that's the way it goes sometimes. I worked on into the evening to make up for it and got all yesterday's jugs handled.



I got these harvest jugs thrown too. So lots to do tomorrow between kitten duties and a trip out early in the evening to take pots to a group exhibition that's opening this weekend at Fursdon House, then I'll put in another late night to catch up. Nearly feeding time so gotta go, cheers all.

New New New New New New

Lots has happened since my last post. I've had a nasty dose of Man flu which knocked me out at the end of the week. I caught it from Luke and since then, both Hil and Joe have had it. I'm feeling much improved, the only thing to do is to try and sleep it off, so that's what I've been doing.

Here's some new stuff that's been going on.



Last Wednesday my old chum and Derby Boy, Simon Hancox became a new dad with the birth of little Edward. Many, many congratulations to him and his wife Julie.



On Saturday we listened to the radio to hear my local football team Exeter City, beat Rotherham to qualify for automatic promotion to League One. I wouldn't say I'm an avid football fan, I don't bother at all with the Premiership or even the national game, but I really enjoy going to watch City with Hil and the boys and have seen the club through some rough times, so it's fantastic that they've qualified for a new league.



The boys rang me up at the workshop when they got home from school this evening to say that there was a new born kitten under Joe's bed. We were too slow at getting Kipper to the vets to be spayed and before we knew it, she was pregnant. I rushed home and we found another tiny kitten, cold and apparently lifeless under Luke's bed. We managed to warm the little mite up and now it seems to be feeding alongside its sibling. See you in six weeks Dave and Sue ;)



Yesterday I went and collected my new car from my friend Jeff's place. It's fab, I love it, although I kept forgetting today and each time I saw it outside the workshop, I thought I'd got visitors. Here it is parked in front of my new sheds. I ordered the sheets for the roof today, so far the sheds have half a roof, no floors, three walls and hanging baskets. Maybe not the conventional approach to building, but I like doing it this way.



And finally, new pots at last. Ages since I made any of those. It was a struggle to get going, more pots tomorrow.