Blog post!

Hi there. I've been very bad at updating this blog recently, I apologise for that. Here's what's been happening.

I have some orders for a number of very large pots, so in recent days I've been learning a bit more about coil-throwing. It's a tricky technique, which I've done before, but never really mastered. I made a few big pots last week, but I'm still not happy with the shapes they've been turning out, so they've been scrapped and put back through the pug mill. The picture shows one in the making. This one went to about 2ft 6, before I scrapped it. By the time I made the last one, I felt I'd got much better at joining the coils and hiding the join, but the shape was still a bit unresolved - I need to do much more drawing, so that I'm aware of how I want the form to develop. Nevertheless, I made good progress and I'm confident that I'll get it right soon with a bit more practice. There are some important exhibitions coming up this year, so it'll be great to have some whoppers made for those.

I was helped greatly by this fantastic new book, which has been written by my good friend Nic Collins. I went to stay with Nic last week and left with a copy and the customary hangover.

It's a really good book, with lots of step-by-step photographs, showing various different ways of making larger pots - here's Nic doing his thing...

...and here's some other dodgy bloke throwing a jug. A really good 'how-to-do' guide, you can get it right here.

This pot was a bit of a weird shape, but I thought I'd see it through the process, just so that I could work out how to slip, decorate, glaze and raw fire such an object. As it turned out, I dropped it this afternoon when I was trying to slip it, so it wasn't to be.

One of the reasons for going to visit Nic was so we could have a talk about an essay that he's asked me to write, for the catalogue of his solo show at the Goldmark Gallery, which opens on 2nd April. It's a great honour to be writing such a thing for a prestigious exhibition. I got a sneak preview of the work that Nic's amassed for the show, saved from firings over the last two years - it's going to be a stunning exhibition, really spectacular. I'm supposed to be writing the essay right now, but blogging is long overdue so I thought I should do a bit of this first.
This is other stuff from the last week or so. An 8lb sprigged jug
Some baluster jugs. These are more slender than usual - they're such an anthropomorphic shape, maybe my recent Dame experience has made me consider more feminine curves :)
1lb jars.
Some jugs with applied decoration. The pot in the middle has a peculiar beak through which to pour. It's a funny looking thing, based upon one of the medieval jugs in York Museum. I dug up a rim shard from one of these in my garden a few years ago, with the pouring hole and a bit of the beak, so I was able to work out exactly how the beaks were joined.
Another baluster, black slip over white.

On Friday my old chum Andrew Grundon(aka Frank), signwriter, carver, writer and illustrator came to visit. He's an exceptional artist and with absolute ease and confidence, drew this sgrafitto design on to one of my little jugs for his daughter, Freya.

This pot will go into my wood firing, which happens on Saturday - woohoo!!

Alex and Hannah are coming down on Tuesday for the week, to help with the pack and the firing. It'll be great to see them and it'll give Hannah and me the opportunity to knock about a few ideas for things that we might include in our forthcoming workshops in the USA. I'm looking forward to new pots, warm from the kiln, this time next week - hurrah.

Well that's all for now, I've made a few videos in recent times, so I'll post some of those later. If you'd like to see more pictures of what's been happening this month, follow this link here

Happy Monday everybody, back soon

Goodnight

Advanced Pottery

A couple of weeks ago a parcel arrived at the workshop.



When I opened it, inside I found a copy of this book, Advanced Pottery by Linda Bloomfield. What a lovely book it is, packed full of numerous photographs of wonderful pots, historical and contemporary, accompanied by a thoroughly well researched text.

Linda asked me a while ago for some images that she might include in the book, so I employed the fine skills of my photographer friend Johnny Thompson. John takes a lot of pictures for me and they're always top quality. Because of the high standard of his images, Linda was able to use quite a lot of them and it was a lovely surprise to see my pots and my working practices scattered throughout the book. On the left page, one of my puzzle jugs and on the right, slipping and decorating a large jug.



I remember this jug well, because it was the first pot I ever bisc fired in my new at the time, electric kiln and I blew it up into a million tiny pieces.

Here, demonstrating leaf resist, a traditional technique used by the country potters of North Devon.

A finished leaf resist jug and on the opposite page, Hannah demonstrating her great slip trailing skills.

The book shows a whole range of processes, handbuilding, slipcasting, throwing etc. with sequential photographs showing how it's all done by leading exponents of each discipline. It also has all the chemistry, maths and clever stuff, that usually brings me out in a cold sweat, explained in a way that even a simple potter like I can understand.

If you'd like to get your hands on a copy, you can buy it from Amazon, but it's cheaper and better to get it from Linda via her website

It's a great book, congratulations Linda.

I'm coming to the States

Hi everybody. I've not blogged for a few days now, life's been rather hectic, with a tax return deadline and pantomime rehearsals and performances dominating my life. I haven't got a huge amount of pots made during the last week, hopefully this week will be more productive, although here I am at home, messing about on the computer when I should be at work, so not a great start.

I made a few of these 7lb tapered jugs the other day, here's one after it was freshly slipped.

This is a large jar, drying and awaiting bisc firing.

On Saturday I had a delivery of wood to the workshop. Marky Mark and I cut and stacked it in the woodshed in readiness for firings later in the year. I'm very fortunate, as I can get a regular supply of this softwood, which is delivered to me from a sawmill situated about five miles from the workshop. It's all the off-cuts and scrap that they can't use, but a lot of it's been very useful to me, not just for kiln fuel, also for building the various sheds that we've tacked on to the workshop in recent times. I've another load coming at the weekend, I plan to completely fill the new woodshed, floor to roof, so I'll have lovely dry wood for many firings to come.


Well, what do you think of the new look? Will I be allowed into the States looking like this do you think?

I've been involved in a production of Tom the Piper's Son and as you can see, I have the part of the delightful Dame Aubergine Sprightly.

It's been great fun doing this pantomime, although it's a lot of commitment - we've been rehearsing for months, two or more evenings a week. The show opened on Friday night, which was a somewhat chaotic performance(the first night always is), followed by a much slicker rendition on Saturday. I have a rehearsal on Wednesday evening this week, then performances on Friday and Saturday. I'll miss it when it's finished, I'll need to find something else to do with my evenings for a while.

One of the reasons I got involved with the drama group, was that I felt I needed to boost my confidence of talking in front of people. My life at the workshop is predominantly solitary, so I'm more accustomed to talking to myself. It used to terrify me whenever I got asked to do talks and demos at ceramics events, although in recent years, I've done a lot more of it and it has become much easier. My belief is however, that if I can stand on a stage in front of a full house, packed out with folks from the village and beyond and act the role of this fierce yet charming old hag, perform Sonny and Cher's duet 'I've got you babe', with my friend Sarah, pictured here above, who is acting the male role and my reluctant love interest, then surely the prospect of doing some pottery workshops in front of people must be less scary when I come over to the States with Hannah in April. My word, that was a long sentence. To be honest I am a lot less nervous about the forthcoming workshops now, so it has helped. Mind you, I might pack my frock and a backing tape when I go, just in case it all goes horribly wrong!

Here are the dates and venues of our US slipware tour:

Cape Cod courtesy of Hollis Engley, the weekend of 9th and 10th April,

Liberty Town in Fredricksburg courtesy of Dan Finnegan, the 16th and 17th April

Shelby, North Carolina, courtesy of Ron Philbeck, the 23rd April

It all seems a bit unreal at the moment. It will be great to meet some of my virtual friends, in the real world and to make some new ones too.

Well that's all for now, housework to do, then back to work tomorrow

Bye bye all

Decorating an 8lb jug

Making a jug in two parts

Big ol' harvest jugs

Hello all


Here are some large harvest jugs that I made today. There's a video of one of these being made which will follow soon, when I can get it loaded up. They're made from 16lbs of clay, the body thrown first, then a part-thrown neck added and finished on the toughened pot.

Loads of slipping and decorating to do in the morning, then late night working with Marky Mark.

I haven't really blogged much about my forthcoming trip to the States in April with Hannah - I'm partly excited and partly terrified and I'll tell you all about it soon. Just now I'm concentrating on getting the pantomime out of the way and can't think any further than that. Opening night, a week on Friday and I still don't know my lines - eek!

Nighty night all

Three little videos

Wednesday jugs

Evening all
Here are a few pics of stuff that's been going on at the workshop over the past couple of days. The pictures are the wrong way round, as these are 8lb jugs that I made today, after warming myself up with 3lb jugs yesterday.
I like some better than others - I like the shape of this one - they'll all be ok with the right handle and decoration I hope.
This is one of the 3lb jugs I made yesterday. I threw them using reclaimed clay from my scrap buckets, which was very soft and extremely 'short' as you might be able to see from the little splits in the surface. These don't go right through and will pick up the slip nicely, later. You can't hang around when using clay in that condition, so it's something of a challenge. I have a number of really old country pots that have similar characteristics, where the potter has clearly had to make the pots very quickly before the clay became tired and collapsed.
More of the same. In all I have eighteen 3lb jugs and six 8lb jugs. I want to make another six 8lbs jugs before I move on to the next thing, which might well be some more jugs - big 'uns.

Here's a little film shot today of an 8lb jug in the making. Note the new Spring haircut - I'm regretting that one, it's not the weather for it.

Happy Thursday all.

Monday Mugs

Happy Monday everybody

Here are the fifty mugs that I made lst week, all slipped and waiting for firing.
These are little stamps that I use for making the sprigs. Every time I fire the wood kiln, I try and get a few new ones in, with the date of the firing scratched in to the side of them. This form of embossed decoration was commonly used by the medieval potters of England.
Here's a mug with sprigs
And this one had marks, drawn through wet slip.

Well mugs aren't going to fill the kiln very quickly, so I need to get stuck in to making some bigger pots this week - maybe a few jugs?

Dan was asking about the pantomime after my previous post. Pantos usually run from before Christmas and in to the spring. The male lead us usually played by a woman and the female lead, or Dame, by a male. Guess who I am this year. Grayson, I'm hot on your heels :)

Blunger!

Different Dave and I went on a road trip to Cornwall yesterday, to Peter Swanson's pottery, near Penzance. We went to pick up the huge blunger that Peter has kindly given me, that I'd attempted to collect just before Christmas. I hired a truck with a tail lift, because the machine is so incredibly heavy. Peter had managed to get the bolts undone that we'd struggled with last time, so we were able to get it out of the door on rollers and broken down into several heavy sections.
I was really anxious that because of the size and weight of the thing, that we still weren't going to be able to move it, but Different Dave, who has done a lot of shifting of heavy weights in his time, was brilliant and lead the operation. Much leverage, and shoving and shunting was required, before the huge machine, which weighed over a tonne, was loaded safely on to the truck in separate sections. Getting it off again when we got back to Hollyford, took a similar amount of brute force and cursing. It's going to be a while before it's all rebuilt and put into operation, but it's going to be a fantastic asset once it's working, thank you very much Peter.
Back in the workshop, lots of mugs with handles.

Next week, nose to the grindstone with full scale production, but not before the delights of tackling the dreaded tax return - groan.

Happy weekend all.

Wednesday

Evening all

A really brief post this as I need to go to bed, but I wanted to check in first. Life's really hectic t the moment, with work, the band and two evenings a week taken up with rehearsals for the pantomime which opens in a couple of weeks.


Marky Mark came by and we worked into the evening. It was great to see him, he's been away in Mexico for a few weeks. It was good to reinstate our regular Wednesday evening session.

I made fifty mugs today, so lots of handles tomorrow.

That's all for now, beddybyes time for me

Goodnight

New year, old pictures

Hello everybody.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, I certainly have had a lovely time and have gained half a stone, so I need to get back to work soon to work it off.

I'm pleased to say, all our snow has gone, so I'll be able to get to the workshop with ease when I start back next week. I managed to get a lift up there on Boxing Day with a friend who has a Land Rover, which meant that I was able to retrieve my camera, so I have some out of date pictures to share with you.
This is a huge blunger which has been given to me by Peter Swanson, a fabulous potter who lives near Penzance, over the border in Cornwall. In the picture is my chum Frank.

A couple of weeks ago, we travelled down to Peter's place in Frank's van, to collect the blunger. What a nightmare, it had rusted up, so we couldn't get it apart. It was too tall to fit through Peter's door in one piece and mighty heavy too, so after much cursing, hammering, further cursing and harder hammering and harder cursing still, we had to abandon it. We'll go back and try again soon, with more muscle, bigger hammers and louder cursing.

I'm really looking forward to getting this fantastic machine back to Hollyford as I'll be putting my native clay processing system in place in the next few weeks. This blunger will mix half a tonne of clay into slip, enabling me to sieve out any debris, before drying it back out, into plastic clay. It is something really exciting, to be fully self sufficient in clay, from the field beside the workshop.
The next two pictures were taken at the group exhibition I was in, on the outskirts of Cambridge just before Christmas. On the left, painter Simon Jowitt and on the right, my big brother. These two have been friends nearly all their lives. I hardly took any photographs at the show.
Here's one of the big harvest jugs from the last firing that now has a new home.

Here are some shots of the fieldfare puzzle jug that I wrote about in a recent post, glazed and finished.
It is most certainly a winter pot, with just one leaf and one apple on the trees.

Well, that's almost it for now, new pots to come next week. I want to end by thanking a lot of special people.

A big thank you to everybody who has supported me in the past twelve months, through buying my pots. I hope the pots continue to give you pleasure.

Many thanks to those who have helped me develop the workshop, Different Dave, Croydon Tim, Marky Mark and Frank.

Big, big thanks to Matt and Alex, who own my workshop and allow me to do this at the end of their lane. Without them, none of this would be possible. And thank you to them too for the huge pile of clay dug from their field.

A special thank you and congratulations to Alex McErlain, who has done so much for me in the last year, taking me to Montpellier back in the spring and exhibiting my work in the ongoing Honest Pots exhibition in York City Art Gallery.

Alex has just retired from Manchester Metropolitan University. His kind of knowledge and experience will never be seen again in Higher Education and I know that he has had a profound influence on the lives of many people.

I'm really looking forward to Alex spending more time at Hollyford in months to come.

You may have seen this little film of Alex before, working on some collaborative pots he made with Alice Kettle, but I'll post it again. Congratulations Alex

And of course, last but not least, a big thank you to my family who have put up with the long hours I have to work and erratic income, associated with a career in pottery.

Happy New Year everybody, all the very best for 2011, hope it's a good one.

Right, it's party time!

Happy Christmas!

Well it's been ages since I blogged. Since last I posted, I've had two exhibitions, finished the fieldfare puzzle jug and delivered it to its new owner and been snowed-in and unable to get to work. I left my camera at the workshop, so no pictures of any of that to share with you. Normal service will be resumed in the New Year, when I need to get stuck in to making big style.

As we've been snowed-in, there's been nothing for it, other than taking a relaxing break at home with the family, which has been a delight.

One minute until Christmas day. The boys are in bed, soon it will be time to fill their stockings with goodies. They're big now - too old for Santa, but not too old to hang their stockings up.

I hope you all have a very, very Merry Christmas

Frosty Monday and the Fieldfares in the orchards

Well I made it to the workshop on Friday and it was indeed, as my friend's picture had shown it - bloomin' snowy and bloomin' slippy. In spite of the man flu, I bravely soldiered on and managed to get the pots wrapped and packed and into Exeter in time for the opening - just.

The drive back was precarious, it doesn't look much, but the lanes out in the sticks aren't gritted and as soon as you get to a hill, it becomes a game of stop, start, stop, reverse, run-up, go........ hope for the best.

Anyway, I made the opening in a somewhat unprepared fashion and chatted, through a fever of man flu, to the good folk who came on such a cold night. I didn't take any pictures, I'll get some later in the week.

This morning I walked to work. This is the frosty orchard.

The trees were full of Fieldfares, they always are at this time of year, they migrate in from Northern countries for the winter months.

It was chilly, but beautiful.

I have been waiting to get on to sgrafittoing this puzzle jug and the walk through the orchards inspired it's development today. Usually I pinch a traditional rhyme from old puzzle jugs, but this one has one of my own, written in a similar, folksy kind of way. It says:

Fill me full with cider sweet

From orchards where the fieldfares meet

And puzzle as I challenge you

To drink, not spill, my appley brew.



So far it has a number of birdies that look (very, very)vaguely like fieldfares- well they have speckles and two wings at least. They're hanging out on the bare, winter trees. I could make them look more realistic(yea right) if I were to copy them from a book, but I like the idea of drawing what I think they look like, as they would have done in the days before photography. I hope that they capture the naive essence of the old North Devon slipware jugs that I admire so much. Many hours of scratching still to go this pot.

Well that's all for now other than to invite once again, anybody who would like to come to:
The Exeter show
The Cambridge show

Or to browse the Great British Potters on-line show

Goodnight all

Snow

First of all, thank you to everybody who left comments about my latest firing - I think it's one of the best I've ever had.

This is what the workshop looked like today, not that I got there. This picture as taken by a friend who lives at Hollyford. I was snowed in and crashed out on the sofa at home with a nasty dose of man flu. The boys have been off school today too as the school buses weren't running.

My pots, which need to be in an exhibition in Exeter tomorrow, are still snowed in in the workshop. I'm hoping I'll be able to get there tomorrow to get them, or I won't be able to have any pots in the show for the opening tomorrow evening.

I might even be too man-flued up to go - oh it's tough being a man with a cold.