Friday 13th and other stories

Friday 13th came and went. A strange day, not all good, suffice to say that it is an unfortunate fact that when a large ceramic object drops it breaks. A rather catastrophic reminder of the impermanence of pottery, significant by the date and curiously strange in that it was also my birthday!

Potters are pretty good at putting things behind them and it was otherwise a pretty good weekend. Oskar came up and we windsurfed out to Hestan Island on a steady Easterly. We had left it a bit late so the tide was well turned by the time we reached the island. This is the Solway so there was a fair rip developing over Hestan rack (a causeway appears at low water). We didn't linger there and Oskar set off easily. I had a bit more trouble as the rip was beginning to pin my sail and board down. It was a relief to get up and going and make the more friendly waters off Almoness Point and reach back into Kippford in glorious sunshine.

No photos of that day but here are some of the weekend before when a few of us joined the Edinburgh Samba school to play in the Festival Cavalcade.

It was exceedingly hot, and we drummed energetically round Arthur's Seat making a terrific racket.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHpyT_WW5jY


Back in the workshop I have been having one of those sorty weeks, with little to show for it. We got an order for materials written up and off, I tidied out the garage, updated photos on the websites and eventually wrote out a list and made a start on those itsy bitsy small orders that I have managed to put off for ages. None of them are particularly hard, or exciting, but strangely they take ages to do. 'One of these, one of those', and of course I have to throw more than one to get into the swing of the form. This on top of the showroom having a steady stream of holiday browsers has made for a rather unsatisfactory week workshop wise, but it will be a relief to get them made and off to the patient clients and then have freedom to get on to new things.


I remember Mary Wondrauch in her book on Slipware relating how she kept the rare but treasured letters of thanks she received from happy people who had bought her pots. Well nowadays it is emails but I received one of the nicest correspondence the other day from someone who had bought one of my dishes at Potfest. It made me smile from time to time all day.

PPP-Penguins and Potfest

Well, I made seats, a table, long dishes and other such delights, but what really caught the imagination at Potfest was penguins. Lots of them! I even had to send an SOS to Zoe to bring down some penguin reinforcements, ( so as not to disappoint a fair few children - “Have you got any more penguins please?’)

Much to every one's amusement the reinforcements arrived in wetsuits. Well wrapped Inigo, thanks!


The reason for the rush on penguins was my competition piece. The theme this year was a ‘Shrine’. Mine was a ‘Shrine to Flight’. (Another reason that I wanted to hold on to the eagle for a bit). I'm afraid I never even got a good photo of it, though I hear that plenty of other people did.



It appears that it caused a fair bit of positive interest, winning plenty of votes. It won not only the ‘Spanish prize’, (the Spanish potter being Emile Biarnes whose work was stunning), but also the potters prize and the public prize! I was more than a little embarrassed, not being one who is comfortable with too much attention, but Niek Hoogland said, “Just enjoy!” So I did.


Potfest in the Park gets better each year with even more interesting overseas exhibitors. It was great to meet up with bloggers Dan, Margaret and Hannah, and find another blogger Novie Trump from North Virginia, who had made her impressive pieces in this country with someone else’s clay in 3 weeks flat.



So a successful show for me all round and a lovely show to do. I was pleased with my stand and Rodger's extra white boxes just did the trick. It was strange doing it without him, but probably good for me to HAVE to do all the talking for once. A reward indeed after the ridiculous amount of candles burning at both end that have been going on.

Back home I have been unpacking in go slow mode. No more big outside commitments for a while which is good as I need to slow down now for a bit, especially when I see those bags under my eyes in that bloggers photo!