'Honest Pots' the movie

Showroom!

Well I haven't blogged much of late because I haven't made any pots. Instead I've concentrated my energies into finally getting the showroom finished off and there's only so much bad woodwork that I want to show on here! Please bear in mind that this little lean-to has been entirely made out of scrap and scavenged materials.


Different Dave removing the controls from the electric kiln which has been moved into the same room as my wood kiln.




Still a bit of finishing work to do, everything could use another coat of paint, but it'll do for now. This week I have to rearrange the workshop so that I can make room for the sixteen members of the Westcountry Potters Assosciation who are coming a week on Saturday. Other exciting stuff happening this week too, but I'll save that for a later post.

The Clay and Blogs show opened on Friday night in North Carolina, here are some pictures from the show on Linda Starr's blog. Thank you to Meredith for organizing this significant event - the ever growing world of the blogosphere is quite remarkable.

Happy Monday all

David A Smith - Sign Artist

David A Smith - Sign Artist from Danny Cooke on Vimeo.

Brief post cider ramble

Hello all.
Well I haven't made any pots for ages, but I've done lots of work on the building. I have Westcountry Potters Association coming for a day in a few weeks time and I'm determined to have the place sorted out by then.

This is the showroom/kilnshed in a state of transition.
The woodshed, half finished and chaotic
The showroom. I reckon I'll have it finished in the next few days.
The garden looking pretty in the autumn sunshine.
And prettier still, a visitor from Scotland. Hannah came for a couple of days earlier in the week. It was good to see her. We're going to be going to the States in the spring where we'll be doing a number of workshops, so we spent our time making some basic plans for that little excursion - more about that at a later date. I sent pots out to the States this week for the Clay and Blogs show.
Well a rubbish and brief attempt at a blog post, but it's better than nothing I guess. Just got back from the pub, trying to track down my wood supplier, but he wasn't there, so had to stay for a couple of ciders just in case he came in.

Can't wait to have wet soggy pots to show you, won't be long.

Happy weekends all.

Skiver!

I took the afternoon off today to go to a farm sale, of old machinery and farmhouse items, near the barn where we Love Daddies rehearse.



Love Daddies rehearsal room/Cookie's workshop



And hornets that cut short last week's rehearsal - it started with a few, then suddenly loads - so we legged it of course.

Anyway, back to today. It felt rather sad, picking over the affairs of a deceased old farmer in a decaying house, but that's life and death, as the old addage goes, you can't take it with you. The house was fascinating and still had its original 19th century wallpaper. It was packed full of the evidence of a lifestyle from a bygone age, the old guy had been a hoarder. There were old horsedrawn carts in the field, rotted and full of woodworm, rusty ploughs, tractors and in the house, books, iron beds, boxes of cutlery, etc. etc. etc.

There were a few old 19th Century country pots, a salter, which is a huge oval shaped earthenware trough, glazed only internally, with galena. It would have been used for preserving hams in days of old. Also a great scalding pan for making clotted cream, a local speciality. I already own examples of such pots, but nevertheless, I was almost tempted to have a bid. But I have little room to store any more of them, so I left them for somebody else to buy, even though they each sold for just £20, cheap for a bit of history.



So I waited for this lot, in the hope that I may be able to afford it. I couldn't believe it, nobody else even bothered to bid, so I was able to buy this huge crock for just a fiver, hurrah!. Ok, it's broken and tied together with baler twine, but that doesn't worry me, abit of glue would sort it out, but I'll probably just leave the twine on instead. This is just the sort of old country pot that gets saddos like me me excited. In fact, simple country pottery is my favourite type of pottery and this one will live with the other inspirational pieces that I keep in the workshop.

The skills of the guys who made these things, was phenomenal, I guess they did it all day, every day, executed with absolute economy in terms of the use of both time and materials, thrown skillfully with minimal moves and to the optimum thickness, without excess or waste. These wares are the focus of the show, Honest Pots, that I spoke of in yesterday's post, I'll rattle on a lot more about that show as time goes on.

In the picture by the way, is my friend and fellow Love Daddy, Cookie. This picture was taken in his workshop just before we came home this evening. It's his birthday today, although he doesn't know that I know(I haven't been able to mention it all day) and his wife has invited a few of us around for a surprise tea this evening, ha ha! He has a wonderful blog, right here, which he thinks nobody visits, so please take a look at his amazing wood, art and words and leave him a birthday greeting, he'll love it.


Back to the country pots. For those of you who haven't seen this film before, here's the first installment of Isaac Button, Country Potter for you to enjoy - the rest of it is also on Youtube. There's no soundtrack, so don't start to mess with your volume controls. I've heard it said that sadly Isaac passed away before the film makers had a chance to return and record the soundtrack. It is an invaluable historical documentation of a master craftsman at work.




Right, got to scrub up and head for Cookie's, bye for now.

Cooked

Well this is the story of the last few days of hectic craziness. I've got very behind with this blog and the further behind I get, the harder it gets to catch up, so please excuse this if it's a bit of a ramble, at least it will get me up to date.

Here's the pack on Tuesday night

And here's Marky Mark, loading it in

Firebox 1, lit with the gas burner at 8.30 am Wednesday morning

The new chimney was fantastic

Blogger Paul called by. It's always good to see Paul. he kindly brought me a mug which I've been enjoying using ever since. Marky Mark came up after work and Tilly, Debbie and Clarkey all did their bit. The firing finished at 12.30 am. We were exhausted, but all seemed to go well. Certainly it was a lot less smoky than previous firings.

On kiln opening day, poor Alex peeled the top of his head off on my door frame - it was most unpleasant, like scrubbing the skin off a new potato - sorry Alex! I need to get a length of padding stuck up, it never catches me because I'm used to it, but has claimed a few scalps recently.

So on to the firing.

Well as ever, it was a mixture of good and terrible, but the good were very good and the terrible were fewer than in recent firings, so it was a marked improvement. There are however, still far too many losses, some inexplicable, for instance this pot of Alex' blistered like crazy wherever there was black slip. I think there are a few changes to make in the way we pack next time.

Fortunately, some very important pieces that are to be part of an exhibition entitled Honest Pots, came out successfully. I'll write more about this show later, it's very exciting, in the meantime, check the link to find out what it's about. The show includes some of the collaborative pieces that Alex and Alice Kettle have been working on and some of these were in this firing.

Thankfully, the majority of those pieces came through successfully and the failures can be refired and hopefully, recovered. There are also six of mine in the show, so it was a huge relief to get some new pots through so that I could send good pots that to York and still have enough of my best pieces for the forthcoming Great British Potters exhibition.

Here are a couple of mine, I'll post some better pictures soon. This is a Harvest Jug, probably about 14" in height.

This tapered 'medieval' jug stands about 12".

The weekend continued in hectic fashion with a Love Daddies gig on Saturday night in the courtyard of a local pub. Ringo Starr and Kate Moss stayed there the week before as it was Ringo's boy's wedding(he lives locally). Not to be outdone, we provided our very own John the Drums and of course, some gorgeous Love Mummies. More gigs next weekend and the one after that too, so after a year of no gigs and a change in line up, suddenly busy times in Love Daddy land.

Back to work this morning. This week I'm trying to get my little display room sorted out and the woodshed finished. I have the Westcountry Potters Association coming for a day of demos in a few weeks time and I want the whole place finished and operating in a systematic manner before they come, so I'm concentrating on that before making more pots. I'm also making some more tiles this week for an order I've been working on for a while, 30 done, 20 to go, won't be long Dave and Sue!

Frying tonight

Kiln packed last night by Marky Mark and me, burner pre-heated overnight, lighting up with wood in ten minutes. Hope it's a good one. Alex arriving early afternoon. Pictures to follow, catch you later, have a good day all.

Tuesday

Well not exactly what we had planned for the Bank Holiday weekend.



It started well, with the first Love Daddies gig in a year at Nic's party. I can't believe it's a whole year since we played live - we've got two more gigs coming up in the next few weeks.


Luke's new band The Fritz played before us.


Sunday afternoon was spent in Accident &Emergency, after Luke dislocated his kneecap playing football. The poor kid, It a was horrible sight, his kneecap was on the side of his leg - yeuch. It was all very upsetting for him and for us, it's horrible seeing your child suffering. The ambulancemen put it back in place after a good dose of morphine, before trundling him off to hospital, where he was X Rayed, then plastered from his groin to his ankle. He's going to be like it for six weeks. It's not giving him much pain thankfully and he's already had a string of visitors and pretty girls baking him cakes!

Here he is shortly after we got him home from hospital poor lad, still wearing his footy kit. He was most upset, because the team was winning for the first time in two years, before the match was abandoned.


Yesterday I was back in work, sieving glazes and glazing pots in readiness for next week's firing. A potter friend, Tilly Young, came by to bring some pots to put in the firing. I have a show with Tilly and a number of other local potters, later in the year - more about that nearer the date.

Today, Different Dave came by with his kiddies and fitted the metalwork to the chimney. It really looks the business now. I'm looking forward to seeing how it affects the performance of the kiln, I think it'll improve things no end.

I'm going to make a few more pots tomorrow - I got my dates confused and thought I was firing this week, but in fact it's scheduled for Wednesday next week, when Alex will be coming down. It buys me a little more time to make some last minute pots - hurrah!

On-line show pots

My on-line show with Geoff Fuller ends in a couple of days. Here are a few pictures of the pots.

Ooo look at my flue

Well Hil and the boys enjoyed their trip to London. After getting the hang of London Transport during the day, Hil saw them onto the tube then went to watch a film in Leicester Square while the boys went off to the gig - my little babies, suddenly all grown up, travelling across the Capital by tube on their own. To a lot of kids, that's just normal, but we live in a rural place where there's one bus a day into the small local town and the majority of the traffic passing by is tractors. My boys are proper country boys, so for them to have done such a thing is a big step. They watched the gig from right down at the front, in the mosh pit, a few feet away from an attention seeking Amy Winehouse. A great adventure.

I by contrast was at work, alone in a shed in the countryside. The weather here was dreadful yesterday, torrential, so chimney building was rained off until today.But today, well, woohoo, what a flue, thank you Different Dave for your help today. This chimney should work a whole lot better, with its extra height and girth. Look how straight it is Alex! Dave's coming back next week before the firing, to fit steel strapping which will make it a lot safer, although I can't imagine it getting windy enough at Hollyford to blow it over, nevertheless, better safe than sorry/flat.

This evening Marky Mark came by to decorate his pots. He has quite a few in next week's firing.

I had decorating to do too, these have a base coat of slip

and here's one with its top coat

and a close up of the same pot

Some more freshly slipped pots that will(I hope) be various tones of green, amber, yellow and black. I'm a bit short of pots for the firing, I'd planned to make a number of very large jugs, but almost every one went wrong, my clay was too soft really. It'll be fine though, there are enough pieces, it'll just be a light pack.

Glaze to mix and test in the morning, then loading up our amps and instruments in the afternoon as we're off to Nic's in the evening to play our first Love Daddies gig for a year, the first ever with our new keyboard player, Daddy Steve. My boy Luke's new band, The Fritz, are going to be playing support - hey, that's my boy.

A week until firing time

Here are today's little 3lb jugs

Some short and fat, some tall and thin
An 8lb jug with scroll handle
Slip

More slip.

The bricks arrived today for the chimney, so Different Dave's coming up tomorrow to help build it.

Luke won a pair of tickets this evening, to go and see his favourite band, The Libertines in London tomorrow night. I saw them first time around a few years ago when they were supporting the Sex Pistols. I wish I had time to go to London with him and Joe and Hil - I could take a peek at the new ceramics gallery in the V&A for one thing, but I just can't afford the time off, so Hil's going to have to take them on her own poor thing - at least she doesn't have to get dragged around the V&A, so I'm guessing she's not entirely disappointed.

Apart from chimney building, I'm making the last few pots tomorrow, for next week's firing. This time next week, the kiln will be packed and pre-heating ready for firing a week tomorrow. Lots to do before then, busy times ahead.

Some pots from the last week

Some stuff from this week

Cider tankard
8lb fat jug
Mixing bowls and tapered jugs.

Slipped