Will it Rain?

'Will it Rain?' ( the title of this pot, but also a valid question). We are off tommorow to 'Earth and Fire' a largely outdoor event.

Well, I got the kiln unpacked this morning with the last minute pieces. It's been a very long day, unpacking and packing, writing lists, ticking things off, losing things, finding them again (usually under bubble wrap). In between our cat became impossibly hormonal and had to be taken to the vet for her injection to ward off the tom, not that some kittens wouldn't be nice but our cat has this complicated condition of........oh forget it. Anyway it was rather a last straw today! Oh and Rodger had his finger bitten, and the trailer lights didn't work and the lock got jammed. BUT that's IT. All ready to get off early tomorrow for the southern reaches of Nottinghamshire.






These were quick shots taken outside today as I was wrapping things up.

Packing, packing. What a lot of work! It should be a good weekend though. I am looking forward to being part of it whatever happens sales wise. Once we have set up that is. I really do hope that the weather stays as lovely as it has been for the last week and that it doesn't rain. (It's been roasting in the workshop with a kiln on).

Creature Comforts

A few new designs for the extruded dishes, included this lemur. Still lovely in wet freshly trailed slip.
At last the dog seat is finished, and a long steady slow drying out is ahead. I tried to lighten the seat, both visually, ( it did feel as though the dogs were carrying a heavy burden), and physically, by cutting away the decorative triangles along the edge. At the moment they do seem a bit dominating, but I think that the balance will change when the rest of the clay is fired black. They should also help the top to dry more easily and evenly.

I am still trying to think of a good name for it. I thought of 'Creature Comforts' but that would be stealing from Nick Park.

Sunday went to the dogs!

I had to get this creature construction to the stage where I could get the top on while there were two of us to lift it. As a result I spent a lovely sunny Sunday, not to mention Saturday, adding heads, bottoms, ears and tails and levelling the top ready to take the curved seat. (I had to ignore the beckoning wind and high tide, but I did have a great sense of achievement instead).

I needed a good idea of a dog's bottom, and as I don't have a dog I typed 'dog's bottoms' into 'Google Images'. Usually a brilliant source, but this time what a load of junk came up, some pretty tasteless. If my computer was ever investigated there may be questions! Not that dog's bottoms are a strange concept - they used to be the to family name for those pasta parcels otherwise known as tortellini.

There is still a fair bit of finishing off to do when everything has settled down, and I am dying to lift away the supporting extra central props.
At the moment the eyes are just balls sitting lightly to give me a feel of where they should be, but I will think about how I am going to do them properly tomorrow. I started to coil the noses but then realised that they were much better thrown. The tails are hollow extruded tubes with cut and rolled tapers.
This is Rodger being a living model for the Pru Cooper plate which I gave him for Christmas.

The opening of my friend Sue Dunne's exhibition was at the McGill Duncan Gallery on Friday. She makes beautiful delicate white earthenware pieces - bowls, tiles, and framed botanical calendars, with embossed grasses and flowers. She and Rosie Villiers-Stuart the painter also on show at McGill Duncan, are off to Mull for a week to draw and paint. I was invited, and would have loved to have gone too, but I just seem to have taken on rather too much this summer. With Earth and Fire only two weeks away there is way too much to finish still.

Another die

I made a new die for a tall vase/jar last week. It worked well and we has fun twisting and bending them as they were extruded. It was a treat that they did look as I had hoped and imagined, (not always the case with dies). The bases, rims and general tidying up take much longer than I care to admit, though I do treat each one individually, I have to as they have their own characters. This in turn suggests how I draw on them.

I had a trip to Glasgow yesterday to attend an event run by the Scottish Arts Council and the Cultural Enterprise Office www.culturalenterpriseoffice.co.ukcalled 'Reflect, Refresh, Replenish'. The day out was rather sandwiched into a busy schedule of preparing work for 'Earth and Fire' and I perhaps wasn't in the best of mind spaces to 'Reflect' or 'Replenish'. However it was good to get out of my beaver hole and be forced to TRY to reflect a little - (where I am post-funding and where I would like to be/go etc). It was also good to meet other makers and have the company for the day of Lizzie (artist and basket maker). www.lizziefarey.co.uk

Lots of legs

I am getting the next seat underway - lots of legs to support the bodies of two creatures who will eventually support the seat.
It was pretty difficult to guess where the legs should actually go, as who usually builds a creature from the legs up? Also I need them to be an effective structure as well as interesting legs. I think I should still be able to get some life into them with the addition of paws etc. We shall see, it is one of these things that I shall really have to work it out as I go along.

Squid dish and canoists

These are some of the larger dishes which came out of the kiln just before the Open Studio event. Rodger tried some shots with rather more 'studio' lighting' to show the ripples, I think these were the best shots. This long squid is about 80cms which is the max front to back of the kiln. I really must stick to that. The long narrow dish which I fired on a slant last week has warped horribly this time.

It was back to a delightfully cooler workshop today and I was looking forward to a clear run of work on my next seat. It just wasn't to be. I just got the creature's body attached to the side of the legs, ( second attempt as the first one rolled off the table), when the year's supply of clay arrived and had to be unloaded along with other materials to sorted and put away. Plus a hospital run in the afternoon. Oh well, tomorrow.

Spring Fling Open Studios

By the time Spring Fling weekend arrived I was already pretty exhausted from the weeks build up! All ready to go with the courtyard swept and pots arranged, the gallery dusted and polished, the windows, ( and I am especially proud of the windows), cleaned inside and out, and the display of pots re-arranged with new pieces from the week's kilns.

10.30am (or earlier, in fact before the official opening time) the cars started to arrive. Quick panic, (oh how will I cope), and off we went. Once it is underway it is easier and I am too busy to be shy. I met some very nice people indeed who were interested and enthusiastic about the new work. Most were on a mission to visit many of the other studios, some were old friends and customers and a a few were just passer-bys who stumbled in
(and one or two stumbled out again none the wiser, as they were really looking for a tea room or other sort of happening).

Some extra feline help arriving. In fact I DID have a lot of help, so thanks to Rodger, for charming everyone, Inigo and Allie for helping with extruding demos and explanations, my brother Philip for providing us with sandwiches and tea, my sister in law Chris who did a quick course in wrapping up pots, and my Dad for coming over to join in the fun and giving his support.

...But commiserations to Angus, the official Spring Fling photographer, who after nearly an hour of work had his bag run over in the car park!
Can't think what was being explained here, or maybe I was trying hypnosis?
Queues making me nervous.
I must have lost my voice by this time, certainly nearly lost in the crowd here.

All over now and the workshop is once again my quiet oasis. However with it being half term the gallery has carried on being very busy, with late 'Spring Flingers' and other visitors. All in all quite a week.

Extruded clay, pugmills and barrels

Thinking that I should really have some interesting 'work in progress' for Spring Fling, I started a new seat this week. I've got some ideas going round my head that I need to try. The 'throne' was a bit narrow for a reasonable sized bottom, so I needed a larger diameter object over which to mould the clay. After rolling the oil drum round from the coal shed and getting it to the back door I decided that it was looking rather too dented to be any good after all. I went back to the original water tank, but how was I to make it four inches fatter?
Got it - wrap it up in bubble!
Now just when you might all be thinking that this extruding game looks a breeze...... nothing is that simple. The lengths started to tear horribly, and it got worse and worse. Allie and I struggled with the pugmill all afternoon, even resorting to cooling the poor overheated beast with damp cloths. I think maybe my little half horse power mill is being pushed to its limits.

We had to give up in the end and let the machine recover. The next day I got Rodger to come and help feed the hopper. Three minutes in there was a yelp - and he withdrew a nastily sliced finger. It appears that the safety grid had corroded and worn away leaving shards of razor sharp metal.
Here are some shards embedded in the screw...
and here is what was left. With so much to get done this week, I had to roll the last two huge slabs by hand and get the top of the pugmill to the blacksmith. Why DID I take this on right now?
The second bisc kiln was fired with this ridiculously too-long dish in it, on a slanted shelf again. Actually it is for a commission and had to be that length, but it is getting a bit silly I know,
A pile of glazing, most of which I got through today. The kiln was packed eventually, but I have at least three kiln loads worth to fire. I keep mis-judging how much space my bigger pieces take up. I'll get some more smaller things in the top loader tomorrow and both should be unpacked on Friday, in time for Spring Fling. I'm a bit afraid that by that time I will actually be ready to collapse.

Bird Throne, Snake Seat and Oryx Stool

We took some shots on Sunday of the black seats. I think I am pretty happy with them generally. Of course I can see loads of ways in which they could be improved,the main lesson is that they really don't need over elaborate decoration - they are such bold objects anyway. I think the amount on this Bird throne is about right.
On the other hand the top of this one is a bit too much. It is actually greatly improved since Rodger ground down the way-too-thick green glaze, and I refired it. It had looked as though someone had put a cushion on top of the seat. At least it is more part of it now.

This is the three tier one - by far the most complicated contsruction and more successful as an object than as a seat but for the record, it does work!
It's been a glorious three days weather wise, but I had so much slip decorating to do I have been rather up to my ears inside, catching everything before they dried out. Now that I have finished and I DO want things to dry....guess what, it's started to rain!

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.