Tropical Scottish Pottery

I love the Gunnera when it is just shooting out its leaves like this. You can almost see and hear it growing. Spring is here (or was), and summer is round the corner it seems to whisper. It does make the place look oddly tropical. I power-hosed the front of the showroom in a 'make the place look good' for Spring Fling. Can you tell?

I have had/ am having a bit of a pre 'Spring Fling' (open studio jamboree) panic. I had a couple of days of rather manic throwing this week to get some serious stock made. As well as that I have had quite a few firings with mainly pretty good results and I 'll get some photos up soon.

The most exciting were the three enormous stools, or as Jim called them, 'seats', and it does sound nicer I think. Yes, the seats - one turned out really much as I had hoped and the other two.... well the glazes were not quite right. Dear Rodger came to the rescue and ground the top down where the glaze was much too thick while I added some extra to the top of the other where the glaze was somewhat thin! They were re-fired on Thursday and I've just had a peak in the kiln, and I think they are looking a lot better...I'll take them out tomorrow when they have cooled properly.


Freshly slipped pots look good enough to eat!
I ran out of black stain and didn't have enough to top up the dark green slip bucket, so it had to be poured.
On the other hand there was plenty of this colour 'oystercatcher grey', (not that oystercatchers are grey but it is the background colour for the oystercatcher design. Allie looks like she's wondering what to do next....Oh, it's alright she managed to lift the base up to wipe after all...
Jugs, mugs and salt 'ovals', sitting with the white slip inside. I do find that the white middles make a good contrast to a darker decoration outside, allowing it to sing out, but it is quite an extra palaver. It has to then be dry enough to handle before the outsides can be dipped or poured. Wowa, rather a lot to finish, decorate, fire and glaze in two weeks, not sure if it is possibl.e.