It was good to see Jim and Ian at The Booth House Gallery, always so enthusiastic and encouraging. Jim had some beautiful slabbed constructed pots and his use of scale is always inspiring.
www.jimrobison.co.uk Ian Marsh who helped out on the extruding course was there too, and he told me he has just got himself a pneumatic extruder from the States. Mmm, nice one- I can begin to see the attraction of 'no hands', I always need a spare pair. Next day I went on to take some work to 'Gallerytop'. It was small but very nice, and beautifully located near 'Chatsworth House', ( looking splendid with its parklands and golden leaved autumn trees). Stopped off in Bakewell on the way back and had coffee in the Bakewell Tart tearoom. I brought a genuine Bakewell tart home for Rodger. The real thing really is quite something - Hannah and Paul enjoyed a taste of the remaining crumbs on Saturday. This swimmers wavy dish I took to Gallerytop. I wish I had unpacked the box it was in though as I now realise that I have abandoned my precious extra strong and famous 'Big Blue' rectangular box. I don't mind the pots, but do look after my cardboard box, Gallerytop!
At last I have been getting back to finishing these large dishes. I've been glazing them - with home invented 'brush on glazes', though trailing the glaze was also working quite well. It will take a couple of kilns to get them all glaze fired, more slanty kiln shelves...they didn't shrink in the bisc THAT much. The big loopy legs did crack a bit at bisc, I'm not sure whether it was the stress of being on a slant or that I hadn't put a proper hole in the hollow.
I quite like the way the spout of this teapot twisted as I was throwing it. I think the tea might come out in a spiral though, so maybe an exciting pour....
Three dishes with variations of this design came out of the last kiln. This one was the nicest as the brown earth in the middle glowed- it was just a lighter tone from being higher (cooler) in the kiln. I'll adjust the oxides in the slip so that I can be assured of repeating this colour. This is how I end up with litearlly dozens of small pots of coloured slips, it's a nightmare. Then I read Ron's blog on deliberate restraints...if only I could be so disciplined. ( I dare not even mention the shelf loads of small tubs of glazes)!
