Lark books have requested me to promote their new publication of '500 Platters and Chargers'. If you ever find yourself a copy, don't forget to look at page 224. I am not sure about my fierce dog platters, ( or charging dog chargers) sharing a page with a skull, but hey I shouldn't complain. It is exciting to be represented in such a nice book.www.larkbooks.com

Ding!

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.
( Stupid!) I got the repair stuff out to fill the cracks and had made a pretty good job of it when I birled the thing round on the banding wheel and knocked a clean slice of the end! More repairs...(huh, even more stupid)!

Twisty spout

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....

Doves

Here's some really nice dove pictures that Rodger took. They really do have very pretty pink feet. These ones live in our dove cote - the shed which is actually the old school outdoor toilets.

Too many small tubs

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)!

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!

I've been too busy to write much lately. I had so many pots that needed to be finished but I got there eventually and managed to unpack three kilns over four days. If I am pushed I can get my small top loader fired twice while the big one is doing its cycle. Then I had to decide what to sort out for two Christmas shows and get the pots priced and packed. I think that this this wavy dish was the best from the kilns, so I saved this one to take to Jim's exhibition at the Booth House Gallery.

Can you believe it - it really WAS too long for the kiln, I couldn't shut the door. I hadn't taken into account the width of the piece, so even at 45degrees it stuck out. I was hovering with a hack saw thinking I would have to cut off some of the tassle like runners, but we decided that this was worth a go. Quite an angle for a kiln shelf, propped up on kiln bricks at one end. The kiln is on tonight, hope it doesn't slide!
Fat hollow extruded lugs on the dishes today, it gives them a good chunky substantial feel without being too heavy.
Some of the penguins are slipped here - dipped first in the black (by sticking a spike in their undercarriages, a process Annette once described rather too vividly as giving them their smear tests....), and then given their white bibs. They then line up in an orderly procession to have their orange beaks trailed.

I dug out this old photo of a Penguin Choir I made as a retirement present for the conductor of the Kirkcudbright Choral. I have an extrusion offcut which I may have a gathering of some of the ones below sitting on- in a festive manner perhaps....
I even threw a batch of penguins - fifty four to be precise, though it never feels as though I've made many as they don't take up much room. The first 6 are fun to throw, after 12 it is beginning to get a little boring....Notice the 'big fatty' - when I've had enough and the chuck has come to an end. They have become a bit of a Barnbarroch thing though and demand is constant. They are often to be found getting up to various antics...
The dishes with lovely wet slip. They are going to have fat extruded lugs.
I did some throwing this week. It's been a while and I really enjoyed it. I neeeded to make some Christmas stock, so decided to take a couple of weeks out from my extruding project.

I haven't mentioned the other bit of new equipment this year - the old dish washer died and subsequently made a perfect spray booth - the stainless steel body being put to good use by Rodger. The drainage hole in the base was just the right size to recess a banding wheel. We were concerned that the extractor motor was so powerful it might just suck the slip straight out of the window and bypass the pot altogether, but it seems to work fine.