Snow gone and shelves filling

The snow has gone, the ice has melted and I have a workshop with water again, in which I can work with hands that can once again feel what they are touching. Outside everything is now a wet, grey and leafless porridge, but the days are definitely a little longer and I've made a start, and there's something to show for it. Having some extra help from Allie this month has focused my mind and together we got some dishes extruded using my new die - plus I got a batch of mugs thrown which Allie put handles on for me today. It is so encouraging to see the the shelves filling up again.

There is always an extra surprise with a new die and this time I noticed that one boat like bend gave a simple yet effective dish with little extra help.


The original idea was to curve the clay as it came out, and although I do like the long narrow flow of these dishes, I found them challenging to decorate. There is so much going on with the shape they seemed to require very little - a difficult lesson in restraint.



I tried something new with the handles on this one - splitting the tube and rejoining, to add an extra dynamic.


I unwrapped the sections of a half started seat - kept damp with regularly sprayed kitchen roll and polythene since.....LAST JULY! (There has been no time for big stuff since then). It took a while to scrape off the now mouldy and disintigrating paper towels, but remarkably it was still intact, (no cat prints or 'clumsy oaf' prints even). Over the weekend I played with several ideas for it. Whatever I had in mind last July I have moved on from. I was going to integrate an owl idea into the base. The owl was to hold up the seat section, but when I realised that the overhang was really going to be too risky I went back to the drawing board. Today I extruded some leg sections which I will use as a starting point. I think at this stage I just have to get the structure standing and then see where it can go.


I was just beginning to think that maybe ‘Secret Santa’ was lost on his way to South West Scotland, or maybe there had been an uneven number of Secret Santa participants, when on Monday a parcel, covered in an array of glorious stamps, was waiting for me on my eturn from Glasgow. So thank you VERY much to Dan for a glowing and edibly rich woodfired mug. Yumbo! I shall enjoy very much.

Aerial view of the road to Glasgow!

The Loch was frozen over and by the look of the prints some brave or foolhardy souls had almost made it across to the island. Certainly the ice was pretty thick. Rodger rubbed away some snow and revealed this crack line, beautifully inlaid with snow.

Looks like the road we took to Glasgow last week, and similarly icy.




It's all so beautiful, yet it's becoming a bit of a problem. It is SO hard to get anything done. On Friday the water wasn't draining from the workshop sink. It had been dripping overnight and the pipe to the outside was frozen. What a palaver, having to drain it in several buckets, then all the red throwing and cleaning water had to be emptied by degrees. I tried pouring the first lot straight down the outside drain, but as the drain was also frozen it just sat there freezing in a lovely red frothy mess, so now I have an odd patch of red ice right outside the back door! Second attempt was down the slippery steps bucket at a time and onto the garden..

Red clay spew is not such a pretty sight on the veg patch I'm afraid.

Today the water coming into the workshop is also frozen, so instead of persisting I have been reseaching African carved stools online - found some crackers to put in my 'inspiration' folder.

I loved this Lion! I can't wait to get going now, athough I had better replenish the smaller stock first before I get too carried away.

Snow - both Distracting and Inspirational

The temperature on the workshop thermometer read 8 degrees c this morning, just NOT that tempting a prospect in which to make that planned early start and knead up icy clay! Instead I got myself warm by shovelling snow paths around the the place, and when Rodger needed his medicinal walk I decided that such a glorious snowy scene was a rare treat and not to be missed.


Snow brings out such splendid patterns, our roof already an inspiration and heading mentally towards an undulating something or other.


What is it about making the first tracks - it just feels great.


The camera couldn't cope with the bright snow, but these deer tracks are worthy of the most skilled slip comber. I just stared at them in admiration. Shortly afterwards we caught a wonderful view of a fox, cat like he studied us for a while, then sat and carefully curled his tail over his paws. After a while he sat bolt upright and pounced - on something.

By the afternoon the temperature in the workshop had reached a heady 10 degrees, warm enough for some action. I kneaded a pile of balls to throw and then made the mistake of shoving my hands in hot water - ouch, the pain! Fed up with that lark I resorted to making a nice little aluminium die for a new mini dish. Small enough to extrude using the big blue, so I should be able to bend it in horizontal wiggles as it comes out, or perhaps those pan tile patterns may appear in some way....Hurrah, I have made a start!

I blinked and then, it was TWO THOUSAND AND TEN!

Happy new year from Barnbarroch! Is it really ten years since I made that fire sculpture and hauled it to the top of the Muckle?! It seems like yesterday, but it also seems like ages since I have had time to even think about this blog.

Christmas and Hogmany followed hot on the heels of getting Rodger home from hospital. But today I got into the workshop for the first time in ages and pottered around tidying away the remains of Christmas. I took down the showroom twinkly lights and got rid of empty boxes, bottles and 'I'll just shove it in the workshop for now' stuff. It feels great just to have clear benches.

But it is SO cold. With the fire opened up all day, the temperature still required long johns and six upper layers. I have always found that some good music makes the room warmer, so once I had set up my (new)! ipod nano and speakers things started to feel more cosy and tempting. I brought in three sacks of clay, from the feel of them full of ice crystals, to thaw out overnight, hopefully ready to knead up by tomorrow afternoon.

Initially it is still going to be a short week, as I will have one day a week with Rodger to Glasgow, and a morning a week to Dumfries hospital clinics for his check ups, but it will be easier once the routine is established.

I was disappointed to hear from Earth and Fire the other day as I didn't get in this year. It is a pity as I really had such good feed back last summer with comments on how ' Good it was to see a new face and some completely different work', and 'Why had never done it before', and many said that I was to be sure and come again this year! It would have been good to consolidate. What I mean is that I think it may well have been advantagous to have let Midland folk have a second encounter with my work. Sometimes takes people a couple of times to consider a completely unfamiliar style.

I was quite relieved to hear a few days later that I had got in to Potfest in the Park or I would have felt rather dejected and might really have had to eat a few worms, but actually with Rodger's health an issue I am probably better off not taking on two shows so close together. They were both the highlight and the nightmare of last summer! Also Oskar said, 'Hadn't I heard - it is going to POUR this year at E and F!

Some November pots

Here are some of the pots which were finished over the last few weeks. This was one of the first which I bent from side to side as it was being extruded. The trouble is that my pugmill is mounted against a wall, so it was easier to pull one way than the other, but I can hardly see myself moving it now. I enjoyed the movement the method created so I shall be having another go at this.The most recent die I made had hollow runners incorporated. I tried cutting away so that the runners are showing at either end and I attached the handle to them. Don't ask why a hammer head shark, the shape just seemed to ask for it. I have a feeling that somehow it may not be as popular an image as gentle looking penguins.


From the same die and bowed slightly is this chunky looking dish. Both it and the penguin dish are on show at the McGill Duncan Gallery Christmas show, 'Glimpses of Galloway', although to be honest I am not sure that you would get a glimpse of a penguin in Galloway. I also took along my Swimmer and Dog dish - that one really was a glimpse of Galloway, I saw her with her dog swimming out through the waves as I was having a summer swim at Rockcliffe.


Without my home grown captive photographer Rodger I had to employ the services of a professional photographer last week. With really very little trouble he managed to turn the showroom into a temporary photographic studio. I think I shall have to look into the aquisition of a big roll of paper and some device to hang it from. It is having a clean ready space to take the photos in that is always the problem. For some reason I had never thought of using the showroom, but it was far easier to clear than the conservatory, (full of plants), the workshop, (dirty and full of half made pots), a bedroom, (full of boy), or outside, (full of rain, wind and cold).




He took some shots of my dog seat and I have got them sent off to Lark books so I shall see what happens with that one. he also took the top three shots. I am not at all sure about their 'floating' in white space quality, it feels a bit weird.

It is good to be half back to thinking about pots and the pottery, though it is still on a rather half time basis. I brought Rodger back from hospital on Friday. Already three days at home are helping to improve his well being, but it will be a long slow recovery with trips to Glasgow and Dumfries twice a week for the next few months.

Full kilns

Two good days in the workshop. On Tuesday I had been struggling a bit with slip decorating the work which had been waiting for over three weeks in the damp cupboards, and which I had been struggling to build up a head of enthusiastic steam for. Then I remembered that actually there was a lot of matt glazing to be done. I realised that I was needing a rather more 'mindless job' at the time. The designs had already been lined out, so initially it was just a matter of outlining in black wax. Once I had made a start it then became much easier think about the colours, (mainly trailed between the black outlines).


It was very good for me to have Allie coming in to help out today, she helped me to focus on the jobs in hand and together we did loads of clear glazing and got the kiln packed.


There is now enough glazed work for about two and a half kilns, so I feel thoroughly cheered up as far as work and stock is concerned. I had forgotton how much I had got started before the break. The trouble with breaks is that it is too easy to forget rather a lot. For example I seem to have TWO large buckets marked 'Matt Clear'. Was there something wrong with one of them... or did I mix up two by mistake... I have had to run a test of both of the said buckets in this kiln and delay the final dip of my matt glazed pieces until I can confirm.


What a treat - I had missed the opening of the exhibition at McGill Duncan and so had missed most of Ron Philbeck's work there. Quite an unexpected delight therefore to receive this surprise present from Hannah yesterday. Clean washing line tea for me today!

Home

It’s good to be home, and a couple of characters were just delighted to have me back!


I don't think that I have been away from the pottery for so long in years - a whole 17 days. It has been an anxious and strange time, living in a hospital room and being companion, moral support, clothes washer, errand fetcher and telephone reporter. I have never felt so tired doing what felt like nothing really! I got back last week, (leaving Rodger frail but progressing in the right direction), and spent Friday catching up - mail, getting a swine flu jab, having a temporary filling put in my broken tooth and replying to a host of telephone answer messages.

I have become the owner of a very handsome apple laptop computer - a present from my exceedingly kind sister and brother who wanted to DO something to help! I have never had my OWN computer before, the home one is a 'family' computer and somehow very much Rodger's. I actually think that I may even become a little more literate and less afraid of them as this is just MINE to play with or break, or whatever. As a result of my new toy I did do a bit of photo sorting while I was away and I got some new images onto the web site - long overdue.

It is disappointing that though I made a lot of new work this year, I don't appear to have a particularly good record of much of it. My photographer in chief has been ill, and our lad's bedroom turned 'photographic studio’ is back in use as his bedroom/office again.



This is one of the 'studio' shots which Rodger did manage to take of the bird seat. Lark Books have just written and invited me to send some images for a new publication ‘animal inspired pottery’. I’ll have to work out what to do for that one as it would be nice to send something.

I’ll be up and down to Glasgow every two or three days over the next few weeks but I did try and get into the workshop today. It was SO COLD from lack of heating, the old granite walls take a lot to warm up again. I got a biscuit kiln packed and it's on tonight so tomorrow should be cheerier and more tempting. There are still some unfinished pots lurking in the damp cupboard, I’ll get them out tomorrow and try to remember where I was going.

Distracted decorating

I eventually managed to get the last of the salad bowls decorated on Wednesday. It was difficult to focus, as my mind was rather more in Glasgow with Rodger. I had hoped to do some new designs but I wasn't feeling in a creative enough space so in the end I did some variations on old themes. My Father had come over the afternoon before and was a there with supper ready when I got home from Glasgow. He spent Wednesday morning sitting in the workshop with me doing his tapestry to keep me company. His presence was very calming and stopped me jumping up and down checking my mobile phone for possible messages from the hospital!
Fox and foxgloves in a different layout and one with the chasing cats.
Today it was mugs and jugs, which needed handles on and then slip decorating. Thank goodness for my tried and tested 'Sheep on Criffel' design - easy to do as I have made so many of them, and they need no extra concentration.
I should get them finished off tomorrow and then I will go back up to Glasgow. Inigo is going to keep the showroom open for limited hours. He had a trial run on Tuesday and although he had a few people through he didn't sell anything. I think he was quite disappointed not to get a go at wrapping up a giant seat or some such exotic object!

At the weekend Oskar came up and we had the the most delightful walk out to Rough Island over the causeway. What a great day for Rodger's last bit of 'freedom'!

The Hard Rock & a rocky time ahead.

The Hard Rock prizes went down really well. We watched the event at the weekend and here is my stalwart helper Allie on the ride and the run, coming in as first local woman! I cycled in this event last year but I did start to get a bit worried about injuries - and the more I worried the more I fell off. I now wear a ridiculous amount of body armour and don't look anything like as cool as Allie, but as a self emplyed potter with no personal insurance I reckon I just have to put up with looking like a medieval knight. As a child I always wanted to be one anyway so nothing has changed there.

I had a large throwing session, I didn't mean to make quite so much but the clay was JUST right and I got rather carried away. I have been meaning to throw some salad bowls for ages as I've had none in the showroom all summer.
I'd also run out of tri-vases, (great for people who can't arrange flowers very well, like me). Sometimes they are horrendous to throw but the clay being just perfect makes so much difference.At the same time I'm half way through a group of extruded dishes. I had a go at bending a dish sideways as it was being extruded. It was a bit tricky because the pugmill is so close to the wall, one side was easier than the other. But I do like the effect and I think it has potential.
In between all this making Allie unpacked the big kiln of bisc, but now there is no room anywhere for anything. I will have to finish off the decorating before we can glaze anyway so maybe we should have just left it all in the kiln... but then we have traffic jam problems, (and I have a pretty big workshop)! All the shelves and all the tables are covered and the day seems to have been spent moving things around.

I usually try to keep this blog pretty much to pottery related topics, but the truth is I am in a bit of a panic, trying to get so much made before Rodger's bone marrow transplant. He is going in to hosptial next Tuesday and will be there for a month or longer depending on how it goes. I will be taking the next few weeks off and staying in Glasgow where possible. I do anticipate a pretty difficult few months ahead, with juggling care and keeping home and work ticking over so I probably won't be posting too much, though Rodger has plans to write a transplant blog. ..if he is up to it. Watch this space!

Cat's in the dog house (and dog's away)

Some of the results from the last kiln. Of course I always see where things could have been better, but I was pleased with the life in these ducks.








The lines of the underwater swimmer and dog worked pretty well, though I could have done with maybe a little contrast in the slip colour where the underwater shapes are- lighter or darker perhaps.




I finished a few commissions - two pasta dishes featuring a particular pair of cats.....Not exactly Mungojerry and Rumpleteaser but I must have had T S Eliot in the back of my mind.


Also out of the kiln were the prizes for the 'Hard Rock Challenge' this weekend. (Cycling, and running duathlon). When I went through them to check that all was present and correct, to my horror I noticed that in the Junior category, one was inscribed '4th'.
ER, I wasn't asked to make any 4th prizes, was I? Aaargh, somehow as I was counting, 'four 1sts', (done,tick), four 2nds', (done,tick), all fine - but when it came to the fourth 3rd, I must have written FOURTH on it!
What to do? Well, low temperature enamel has saved the day, enough at least in the short term for some poor child not to be very offended on Saturday!
A difficult birth plate - Ruby, Lilies and Poppies round the edge. How to be inspired by the motif of a ruby? I struggled with this one, but at least the ruby has achieved a sort of glow.
Meet 'Extra', who is now in the dog house. Some poor customers spent nearly 40 minutes choosing a wedding present last Saturday. I wrapped it up and we were just chatting as they were about to leave, when who should come jumping up onto the counter to say hello.
Crash! I was mortified and most embarrassed and they were bitterly disappointed. Did I have another one just the same....? No such luck. She loves to say hello to customers, and has never broken anything before. I will certainly never balance pots on the counter again when she is around!