Paint : Mud : Wood

Thank you Hannah!

Lucky me - look what arrived this morning in the post, thank you so much Hannah, why doesn't it work in my hands like it does in yours? As Ron would say, 'practice, practice, practice!'




12" dinner plates today, they'll hold a few potatoes - more of them to make tomorrow. I need to get the main components of the dinner service finished this week so that I can move on to the other things I need to make. Firing date's set for 11th October, so the pressure's on.




I got some of the clay from the woods mixed into a slip today. I'm going to pinch the kitchen sieve tomorrow to get rid of the worst of the stones and roots(hope Hil doesn't read this). My plan is to be using this clay for as much production as possible by Christmas if I can get the processing sorted out effectively. All these plans - well, only time will tell.




I'm really enjoying my walks home, there's lots of Toadflax around at the moment - I hadn't realised just how much my head benefits from the exercise.

Sunday dreaming

I want to build one of these - don't know how I'm going to afford it, but having fired the updraught kiln at Clay Art Wales and since, the one in Bideford, I'm realising that I've probably built the wrong kiln.

Certainly both of the updraught kilns have been a lot easier to fire than mine, stupid of me not to build to a design traditionally used to fire galena glazed earthenware, I guess I just didn't know what I was doing when I first set the workshop up.

That said, my current kiln does give me some fantastic results, but it's a lot more temperamental and difficult to control than the updraught.

My friend Matt(I called him my landlord the other day, but he's a great friend that owns my workshop) is keen to be involved with building it - it helps a lot that he's a builder, some of the brickwork in these kilns is extremely complicated to a simple boy like me.

So somehow I've to raise the capital, but if I can, I hope to have it running by this time next year - that's ambitious, but it's good goal to have.

So there are my thoughts this Sunday evening, happy Monday everyone, have a good week

That's my boy #2

Another video of my boy Luke at Nic's place the other day. It ain't pottery I know, but I'm so proud of him, it was the first time he'd ever sung in public.

Decorated

Here are some of the decorated pots. Still lots to make next week to complete the dinner service.

Decorating

This is how I practice decorating, lines drawn on a piece of board with slip wiped across it with a sponge. It's a good way of loosening up. I'd love to do some mono prints like this one day.

Friday surprise

Blogger Matt and Tig turned up at the workshop yesterday which was a lovely surprise.
Matt made a quick jug, then blasted it with the gas burner to get the handle on. I'll have to slip it for him on Monday. He's coming back to help with the firing in October, so it'll be good to have one of his pots in the kiln.


You can see some of Matt's pots which are for sale on Tig's site as well as lots of other goodies, buy now for Christmas! Check here.

His mum and dad and sis came by today too, it was lovely to see all those Grimmitts. I got out a few of my old Winchcombe pots the other day when Hannah was here and they were still in a box on our living room floor, so I was able to show the Grimmitts some of my collection of pots made by their ancestor, the amazing Elijah Comfort. I'll take some photos of them and post them in the next few days.

Last night went to a private view of paintings by a friend of mine, Greg Mason,(his daughter Jessica came to me for work experience a few weeks ago). What a talented painter, he has a blog right here

Tableware

I've started making pots for my next exhibition at Gallery 86 in Crediton, if you'd like an invitation, drop me an email and I'll make sure you're added to the mailing list.

The show is with two painters, Heather Cutler and Carrie Clark and my fellow Love Daddy, Paul Cook. It opens on October 18th,.

Paul's making a huge table, benches and chairs. The table's going to be set with an extensive dinner service that I'm making. I'm really enjoying throwing some runs of tableware again, it seems like ages since I've done any repetition like this, it's a good discipline.





Here are some of the pots from this week's make.

Walking

I've been enjoying walking home from the workshop again of late.



The weather was beautiful on Thursday evening, such a change from the deluge we've experienced throughout most of the summer. Hil and the boys have survived their return to school and I've managed to slip back into a sensible work routine at last. Well fairly sensible, long hours, but fulfilling and enjoyable. My head's in a much better place now.




The season's moving along now, autumn's in the air and the hedgerows are heavy with fruits and berries. I enjoy autumn with its rich earthenware tones.



Devon's a beutiful place to live, I'm such a lucky man.

Made some pots!!!

I've put this first picture on here of my landlord Matt and his new pup Digger
for Beck as I know she loves little baby animals, what a sweet little hound.



Wet pots on the shelf at last - tankards - not that I really need tankards, but it took the pressure off a bit making something I don't need - does that make sense? Anyway I got a dozen bowls made too. I'm struggling a bit with my head at the moment, but this is a good start to getting back on track.

The rest of the day's been spent getting the place sorted out for production again. Bideford was great fun, but it's set me back rather as it was a week without making any pots and now I have to get back to the serious business of trying to pay the bills. I've an exhibition in October to make for and a whole load of commissions. The next few weeks are going to be busy busy busy.



Hannah gave me this beautiful little jug from the Bideford firing.



And here's a bowl of mine from the kiln. There are a lot more pictures from the event over at Blogger Paul's.

More wet pots tomorrow - hoorah.

Cheers Hannah

Hannah went back home to Scotland this morning. It's been great having her down. We worked and talked pottery late into the night last night, finishing some mugs we made earlier in the week.




Hannah decorated some of mine and I decorated some of hers. It seemed really odd to both of us to see each other's decorative styles on one another's work. She's such an amazing decorator, if Mary Wondrausch is the Queen of Slipware, Hannah is the princess. Cheers Hannah, come again soon.

Bideford pots

This is one of Marky Mark's bowls that came out really well.



One of three spectacular jugs made by my good friend Simon Hancox.

Pictures from Bideford

Philip unpacking the kiln




Henry admiring Hannah's jug - that one's a really beautiful pot, there's a close up of it on Hannah's blog





Svend's jug and Paul Young's as it was passed out of the kiln.

'Ere you ain't no blogger

Blogging buddies Hannah, Paul and Matt with dear old Henry Sandon.

Well done Mr Leach

The firing was a great success. Here's a snippet of footage showing Philip Leach unloading the first pot, a very fine jug made by Debbie Mitchell. With Philip is Roger Cockram

More pictures later.

Happy Monday everybody, hope your week goes with a swing.

Back in the workshop

Hannah's been with me in the workshop today and we've had a fun time making a load of mugs. I forgot to take any pictures, I'll make sure I take some in the next few days. I wish we'd got longer to see them all through the process, but Hannah has to go back to Scotland on Monday.

Nigel Lambert and Janet Creed called by today - it was lovely to welcome them to my chaotic workshop. Nigel has pots in the Bideford kiln so will be there for the opening on Sunday.

It's good to be making again, it's been a long time - a month at least since I had a good run of potting. I'll feel a lot happier this time next week when the shelves are replenished with wet pots and the skills have returned to my rusty fingertips.

Love Daddy rock again tomorrow night.

Firing in the rain

Blimey it rained and the kiln site turned to mud, but it seemed to go pretty well. Philip and Hannah started the firing at about 6am and between us we stoked throughout the day until the cones finally went over at about 4.30 pm.

We'll open the kiln at 2.30 on Sunday afternoon, so fingers crossed until then




Here's one of the three fireboxes in full flame. I was impressed with the ease with which the kiln fired without a lot of the smoke and reduction that my kiln produces - food for thought, maybe a bottle kiln of my own might be a good project for the future.

Philp Leach packing the kiln

Here's a picture of Philip Leach setting the kiln, about to put in a little penguin model made by my younger boy Joe.

The lady who's helping him is Margaret Squance, who is E.B.Fishley's great granddaughter. Margaret's commisioned the book The Fishleys of Freminton by John Edgeler, which will be launched at the weekend. The book's got one of my pots in it and an accompanying interview so I'm looking forward to seeing it - not least to find out whether I said anything too stupid.

We should finish the pack tomorrow(Wednesday) in readiness for firing on Thursday, then the kiln will be opened on Sunday in the company of Henry Sandon of Antiques Roadshow fame.

Bideford

Hannah and I went to Bideford today to help pack the 'Kiln in the Park'.



There are pots in the kiln by a lot of makers including Svend Bayer, Simon Hancox, Clive Bowen, Mike Dodd, Paul Young, Niek Hoogland, Harry Juniper, Roger Cockram, Philip Leach, Nick Juniper and Bloggers Paul and Matt. Hannah and I both have work in there too.



Here's Hannah chatting about the decoration on her jugs with Harry Juniper



and a selection of glazed wares prior to packing.

To see a press release about the firing and associated events click here

Issac Button

Thank you Ron for posting this on your blog. This is a remarkable documentary, I was hoping one day that it would appear on YouTube.

Issac Button was the last country potter working at the Soil Hill Pottery in Halifax. I think that in its heyday the Soil Hill pottery employed fifteen potters.

The film was made in 1965 by the late Robert Fournier who died back in January and John Anderson.

It was Fournier's intention to return the following year to record the soundtrack, but sadly Issac Button passed away. It's a wonderful piece of historical footage, the skills of these potters was extraordinary.

The full film is amazing, showing everything from digging the clay to firing and unpacking the kiln.

That's my boy

Here's a snippet of video of the Trilbies' debut at Nic's place this weekend. My boy Luke's the one in the middle. They were fantastic and I was soooooooooooooo proud.

We followed them with a set of Love Daddies songs, many of which we hadn't played since Christmas, so it was something of a memory game and a bit sloppy at times, but it didn't seem to matter. You can see more at Paul's blog here.



It was good to meet up with Nic's kiln builders again and Bloggers Paul and Andrew and my old buddy Simon 'Boris' Hancox.

Lisa Hammond was there as well. I like Lisa a lot, she makes great pots. She's planning to move to Devon in the near future, it'll be great to have her around. Here's a poster for a show featuring work by Lisa and Nic amongst others, at the Leach Pottery.




Paul and Simon brought along some fine harvest jugs for the Bideford firing and Andrew kindly gave me these two beautiful pots, fresh from the kiln they'd built and fired during the week.



Sadly I wasn't able to thank him properly as I was(and still am a little) delerious with migraine. Not sure what brought it on, too many late nights, too much worrying for a very nervous son, or maybe, just maybe, a bad apple that went into the cider I drank the night before....hmm.

Anyway, I've to go to the workshop later when I feel a bit better, to mix glaze to take to Bideford in the morning. Hannah will be arriving from Scotland by train this evening, I may rope her into a spot of glazing if she isn't too exhausted from the journey.

I'll post some more Bideford info shortly, it's going to be a busy week.

Nic and the kiln builders

I had a visit today from Nic and the students from his kiln building course, including Blogger Andrew.

They'd been to Svend's amazing workshop in the morning so I think my place must have been something of a contrast. My little shed was bursting at the seams.

I'll see them all again tomorrow at Nic's party where I'll be playing with The Love Daddies. We played our first gig there five years ago, so it's the Daddies' fifth anniversary gig as well as a shin-dig to celebrate Nic's fiftieth year. I think Bloggers Matt and Paul are coming along too with their good ladies.

Also my old college chum Simon Hancox who will be delivering his harvest jugs for next week's firing, it'll be cool to see him.

Luke, my fifteen year old, has a band with his mates called the Trilbies and they're our support act. It'll be their debut gig so they've been praticing hard. I think they're all a little nervous, but they'll be fine. I'm really, really proud of him of course



Still not a lot of pot action in the workshop. I got the mugs that I made earlier in the week handled and sprigged(they're upturned in the picture to aid drying). I can't wait to get back into production again, although it won't be for a few days yet.

Next week I'll be spending a lot of time in Bideford, packing and firing the bottle kiln full of harvest jugs.

Hannah's coming on Monday to be part of the event too.



Finally, here's a shot of my little garden. There's been so much rain that everything's grown like crazy.

Happy weekend all.

Hoorah, made some pots

Just a few mugs, but it's a start.

Aaaaaaaarvest jugs

Mike Dodd and Debbie Mitchell came by today to drop off their harvest jugs for the Bideford firing. That means we've got jugs from quite a few potter's now, I'll get a full list on here later in the week. It's going to be a very significant event - a Mike Dodd slipware jug, how rare is that?

I'm hoping to get a few mugs made tomorrow. I need to get back on to proper working days again soon, the shelves are empty of wet pots and I always get a feeling of terrible anxiety when it's like that.

That's not to say I haven't enjoyed the break, it's been good to have a rest and to spend time with the boys while they're still happy to holiday with us. They're going to want to do their own thing soon. We're all pretty knackered still from the weekend, you certainly don't get much sleep on a festival campsite. So I neeeed to go to bed.

Check out the bloggerware in action on that photo.

The Love Daddies at play

The Love Daddies spreading the word of love.

Making a puzzle jug #4

The spouts are applied, then holes are cut into the neck to create the puzzle of how to get the fluid out of the jug. A secret hole is pierced under the handle, which when not covered with a finger, breaks the syphon, making the riddle complete. They sure knew how to have a good time in the Middle Ages.

I went to the workshop tonight to get a photgraph of the fully constructed pot which has now been decorated and slipped, but the battery ran out on my camera so it'll have to wait.

Off to the Aeon Festival tomorrow for the weekend. I'm playing there on the main stage with the Love Daddies on Sunday afternoon at 3.30, come along if you can make it, then run off afterwards to my opening at The Imagine Gallery, - me, me, me!

Making lots of pots next week, see it all happen here - woooohooo!

Happy weekend all

Making a puzzle jug #3

The handle and spouts are made by pushing a stick through a sausage of clay, then rolling, so that it thins the walls of the tube from the inside and the outside. The handle is then joined.

Making a puzzle jug #2

Holes are cut into the hollow rim, three on the top that will be for the spouts, then one on the back, where the top of the handle will be joined.

The second picture shows a hole being cut into the body of the pot. The base of the hollow handle will be joined here.