Joey the tile maker

Joe's been helping me out in the workshop today. I'm trying to teach him some stuff and it's given him a chance to earn a few quid.

The boys used to come to the workshop and make stuff when they were little, but in recent times, there's been little attraction for them to spend time in a shed in the middle of nowhere.

A while ago, our village bus service was cut (by bureaucrats who have probably never caught a bus in their lives), so it's impossible for the boys to get work outside of the village. It works well for them to earn some money doing jobs at the workshop, and it's been really helpful for me to have Joe there today, blending and pugging my clay.

Today we went down to the stream and dug out some more native clay for Matt's tiles and he learned how to remove all the rubbish and then knead it into a usable condition. I want to start training him up on the wheel soon, so this is a good starting point.

Today, he also learned how to make tiles in the Wenford tile mold.Here he is packing the mold
and wiring off the excess
pushing out the tile
and trimming the edges
Completed tiles, toughening up in readiness for decorating next week.

Tiles

I've been making tiles for a couple of orders all week, pressed out in an old tile mold that I got from Wenford Bridge.

This new toy arrived today - here's Matt checking it out. He's making floor tiles from the clay in the field for some work he's doing in his house.

So Matt, Marky Mark and I have been digging clay from the riverbank. I've been processing it by hand - digging out the worst of the stones and twigs, which are surprisingly few and far between, then lots of kneading.

It looks like this when it's dug out

And this is what it looks like when it's sliced................
.....and then kneaded.

This weekend Matt's going to help get the blunger up and running. I have many tonnes of clay in a big pile in the field and the equipment that just needs installing. The blunger weighs over a tonne, so it's not all that straightforward, but Matt has a forklift which he's going to get running tomorrow, so if all goes to plan, I should be self sufficient in beautiful, plastic, musty, native clay, by the end of the summer. That will be amaaaaaaaaaaaaaazing!

Happy weekend all

Sunday

Here are some pictures taken during the past few days - I'm afraid they're in no particular order.
The village play finished last night. I thought you may enjoy seeing this picture. I played the part of a policeman, who winds up playing the role of a cat in a very badly staged pantomime - all very confusing - it was a very funny play. Here's a synopsis I pinched off the web.

'Out of Focus' is set in the annexe of a church hall. An unfortunate over-booking results in a gathering of a wonderful mix of local characters, ranging from the Vicar's wife to a man intent on delivering a talk on steam locomotives to anyone who will listen! They eventually unite to try to produce a pantomime but, as rehearsals proceed, alliances are formed and switched as the opening night nears. Events culminate backstage after the final performance'

.So that's that now until panto rehearsals start in early autumn. Much as I love doing drama, it's a relief to have finished for a while, as it takes up two evenings a week with rehearsals plus all the extra time, desperately trying to learn lines. It's all been a bit much, but I'm pleased I did it, they're a good bunch of folk.

Here's my muddy wheel. I put this picture on specially for my friend Katrin, who will most certainly not approve of my filthiness. It's the way I like it though, sorry KM.
The workshop's pretty tidy at the moment though - by my standards anyway.
This is a view of one end of my 'showroom'.
and here's the other end.

Shiny slippy shiny stuff
Sweet, fragrant roses in the garden
My boy Joe pugging clay. He's been doing some work for me recently - it's great to have him prepping the clay as it means I can just get on with making the pots.
Another view in my showroom. The painting is by my friend Heather.
The latest shed addition. Luke's using this end of it as a painting studio for the summer - he's turning into a great painter. He left school a few weeks ago and is off to college to study an Art Foundation course in September.
More flowerbed stuff, outside the showroom.
Tidy kilnshed. The saggars came from Wenford Bridge and were made by Michael Cardew for the huge double chambered kiln there. I don't use them much as I have a square kiln, but one day I hope to build a round bottle kiln and then they'll be very useful. As it is, they're just lovely things to have around.
Tall baluster jugs, drying.
Marky Mark throwing yesterday, for once not clad in lime green
Sloppy slippy finger wipes

Flowers in the window

Slipedy slopedy slip
Dribbly slipedy slopedy
A row of them.

Congratulations to Hannah, who has just finished a sponsored cycle ride from Manchester to Blackpool. If you'd like to donate to her cause, you can find a link on her blog, here.

Right, off out for a spot of Thai cuisine with Hil and the boys. I haven't eaten Thai food since a long car journey to Virginia with Dan a couple of months ago. I wonder how Exeter's version will measure up.

Happy Sunday all, bye for now.

Phew!

Phew!!!I need a beer!!!

A few pots from the last firing

Two blogs in one day! Here are a few pics of pots before bedtime. I just got home after a terrible dressed rehearsal - tomorrow's going to be a disaster!This puzzle jug is the biggest one I've made and was decorated by my chum Frank. He even composed the rhyme.
It features an old fellow in a tavern, challenging two characters to try and drink from his puzzle jug
He has a beautifully drawn dog with him which unfortunately you can't see on these pictures
It's a great bit of work, there's no doubt about it - I'm looking forward to doing more collaborative work with Frank.
Here are mugs performing acrobatic feats
A chubby 8lb jug
An 8lb jug with an oak and ash design
This is a crazy pot - lots of stuff stuck on it, one of those you'll either like - or not
I was pleased with this one
and this - I don't make all that many tapered jugs, but five out of six of these came out pretty. I'll put more pictures up of the others on a later post.
This is a tall, slender baluster - I'll be making more of these for the next firing.

Well that's all for now, I need to go to bed and get some zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz's, ready for tomorrow's opening night. Goodnight all

Rufford and stuff

Back again. Since I last blogged, I've been away to Earth and Fire at Rufford. This is my favorite show of the year and this year it was the best that I've had. I think perhaps the pots have improved and I know for sure that the firing was really good. My friend Johnny photographed them before I left and I'll post them on here shortly. A lot of people who spoke, mentioned that they had visited the Honest Pots exhibition in York City Art Gallery. This show still runs until October and is well worth a trip if you are a lover of traditional pottery.



I managed to forget my camera, so I've cheekily pinched these images from my friend Jon's Facebook. My chum 'Frank' came with me. We've been doing a number of collaborative pieces in recent months, his beautiful illustrations on my pots. We took a couple of them with us which created quite a bit of interest and they both sold within the first couple of hours. I'm looking forward to doing more work with him.
We camped with Blogger Margaret
Paul Young
and Hannah, who I hadn't seen since our trip to the States. I think Frank's eyes glazed over on a few occasions as we talked of our adventures across the pond - there are still more tales to share on this blog about that trip and I'll share them in time. Blogger Paul and Marion came by too, It was good to see them. I met many lovely folk over the weekend, thank you to everybody who came to chat and to those who bought my pots.

Since I got home, life has continued to be hectic. On Monday I had a visit from the editor, and photographer of a very classy Japanese lifestyle magazine called Kateigaho, along with Koichiro Isaka, who owns the Gallery St Ives, in Tokyo. Koichiro is writing an article and a book about British potters in which I am to feature. We had a great day in the sunshine, taking photographs in and around the pottery and in the surrounding countryside. I didn't get a chance to take any pictures, but I'll no doubt show the magazine when I get a copy. Koichiro has asked me to provide fifty pieces for an exhibition in Tokyo in January, which is very exciting.

My next show is at Kigbere Manor and is with a group of very distinguished potters with whom I'm proud to be associated. It's an exhibition of teabowls (or drinking cups)and teapots - I'll post some images of my pieces soon, they've come out very nicely thankfully.

This evening I will be taking part in the dress rehearsal for the village play which opens tomorrow - I still don't know my lines - eek!! I play the part of a policeman, so tomorrow the twice annual haircut has to happen, so bye bye crazy curly locks. After this weekend, I get my life back to some kind of normality. It's been too much really, so it'll be good to get back into a sensible pattern. I realize how much I love this blog on the rare occasion that I've had time to update it recently. Facebook is very easy - I can just upload my photos into albums without having to do too much writing, so it's quick, but it isn't the same as blogging. I'm always really happy to hear your comments, but rarely get a chance to reply to them, for which I feel very rude, please forgive me. The last few months have been hardcore, late nights, working every weekend since February, but now America is done, Rufford is done, village play is nearly done, soon I will have my evenings back and blogging will be back if anybody is still out there to read it.

Hello

Hello - here's a voice from the past. I haven't blogged in a month. Life's been crazy. I've been working all hours, trying to catch up from the weeks away from the workshop while I was in the States. Throw in to the mix, rehearsals for the village play twice a week, the recording of a new demo with the Love Daddies, plus all the stuff that goes with family life and it's been hard to find the time and energy to focus on blogging. So there we are, excuses over.
I've made a lot of pots in the past few weeks and fired the kiln last week with Alex and Marky Mark

It was the best firing I've ever had
I'll be having some proper photographs taken this week by my photographer Johnny. I'll post them when I get them back.
These pots are for sale at Earth & Fire at Rufford next weekend.

There's lots more to write about, but I'm only just in from a long day's work, so that's it for now, back soon.