The Hard Rock was Hard, but look who won

After a torrentailly wet night and morning, things dried up just in time for the Hard Rock Challenge. It starts off with a 10 mile run followed by a 17 mile bike ride round Dalbeattie's Hard Rock MTB trail. I was posted to marshall at the top of one of the steepest decents. What excitement when the first bike through was no other than Hannah's Paul! Go Paul Go, (but take care please).

Here is Allie negotiating the nasty little rocky bit with two tree stumps. It was rather a too eventful place to marshall, as with nasty skiddy conditions the tricky stump produced one casualty who has to be taken off with a suspected broken collar bone, plus there was a broken ankle at the bottom of the next section. Blimey, making the prizes for the event was the easiest bit. These folk are nuts!


Well done to our very own, or rather Hannah's very own Paul and his runner Steven, winners of the mens team. Enjoy the mug!

..and Allie put up a great fight, winning first local woman in the individual competitors. Pipped to first overall by an unknown tri-athlete from Aberdeen. Sorry Allie -not these mugs again, she can't get away from them.

The herd of runners.
The final corner, photo finish.

Here is Rodger's consultant Ranjit, cruising along. A lot of local doctors seem to do the event, Dalbeattie clinic has two who take part. We were happy that Ranjit stuck to running only this year, we need him in one piece.

Hard Rock again and an Artistic Slug

I can't believe that a year has passed by since I was making last year's 'Hard Rock Challenge' prizes. But 49 mugs are all boxed up ready to be presented to the interpid winners of this gruelling duathlon this coming Sunday. I'm going to be marshalling at one of the posts (in the rain if the forecast is right), and shall be cheering on Allie who is doing both the run and the cycle and has been training hard. She has a good chance of winning one of the mugs which she helped to slip and put handles on.

The 'Noah series' dried out eventually and I'll unpack the bisc tomorrow. It has been so humid that I gave up waiting for them to dry out naturally and resorted to lighting the workshop stove just to get things moving. I hoped to get a few more new pieces finished for the Mainhill exhibition and time was ticking by with damp pots going nowhere.

It was becoming difficult to start anything else as I had a shelf traffic jam and the couple of days throwing last week which has been hogging the benches. What a great feeling to get the kiln packed, get everything moved up and order restored.

Perhaps I should employ this artistic slug to help with a little slip trailing?

A Harbour Full of Coracles

When I was in Kendal last weekend, immersing myself in Edun Ara (a fantastic event with singing, dance and drumming, and this year part of the Lakes Alive Festival), one of the participants asked me a simple question. So you are a potter, what sort of pots do you make?


Whether it was because at that moment in time I had a head full of music and not ceramics - but I found it very hard to answer. In fact I never have had a good answer to this question. Surely it can’t be that I don’t know what I make? But somehow I still don’t know how to communicate in a concise sentence WHAT it is I make. It would be so much easier if I could simply say, ‘wood fired stoneware, blue and white tableware, or even slipcast spiders. All rather worrying at this stage in my life and my career, especially as I have been invited down to the East Anglian Potters next month to give them a presentation and demo and generally explain myself.


Maybe I just I follow my nose? This month I decided to make a baby version of the coracle dishes, perhaps with a design of one bee or fish in the middle and they were to be dinky in scale. The first thing that happened is that when the first extrusion went through it became immediately apparent that I had misjudged the scale and they weren’t Mini coracles at all, more ‘Junior’ coracles. Then as Allie and I started to get the curves working they became very boat like indeed. I started to throw a few sailors and gannets and before I knew what I had a fair harbour full!


Di and Bill Bruce from Mainhill Gallery came over last week to discuss what sort of things they would like for their exhibition ‘The Shape of Things’ next month and dropped of this smart invitation. I get the whole back page which is rather good.

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!

Extra (to requirements).

Trying to pack for Potfest this afternoon somebody is trying hard to come too. Extra (to requirements).

Pre Potfest Pandemonium

It is amazing just how far half 10,000 gms of glaze can go when you miss the bucket. Well ok, half of it did actually go in the right place, but the other half, oh joy! Half past eleven at night paddling about in the stuff, Crocs full and squishy, and still to get the kiln packed and on. (I glaze the long dishes in a trough and it is is hard to pour the glaze back into the bucket without it building up a back-and-forward-out-of-control swishing movement, and yes I should empty enough slowly with a paddle first)! Eventually with the floor mopped as best as my tired brain could manage and the kiln on, I ran a bath, well I could hardly get into bed half glazed, to discover that the immersion heater hadn’t been on since the last person had a shower, so stone cold it was. By this time it became quite funny in a ‘so tired you have to laugh sort of way’. The trouble then was that though totally exhausted I couldn’t get to sleep. Well a cold bath at 12.30 am is hardly designed to promote relaxation and calm is it?!

But that was yesterday. Today I am smug in the knowledge that there are two more glaze kilns to unpack before Potfest, and I already have one or two new pieces which I am looking forward to showing.

Above is the little top loader with some bits and pieces in it to do with the Potfest in the Park competition piece....

But what a week. Glaze colours mixed at break neck speed. Oh how I was concentrating on getting all the ingredients weighed out, when some customers came in - honey mooning couple to be precise. So nice they wanted to spend some of their wedding money on my pots. Full of this cheery happening I went back to my weighing out, totally having lost the place and suddenly realising that I was following the wrong set of numbers. These new colours were only for a small object like a PELICAN! So rapid firing in the test kiln that afternoon which knocked my whole timetable out!

I am pondering the changing format of my small mix glaze tubs. Several years ago now we got old pill tubs from the local chemist, until they started the plastic bubble dispensing method. Then it was Orchard Fruits low sugar jams, until they stopped making it, followed by Aldi soups. I must admit that just lately I treated myself to BUYING some really nice little new tubs which do stack so beautifully. Such is progress.


....and the Pelican, fast fired, glazed with dodgy distractedly mixed colours survived, and I'm pretty pleased!

Table, comets and a glimpse of Royalty

It was a long wet Sunday, so I was quite happy to stay in the cosy workshop (with two kilns cooling), working on some penguins and some tiles. By tea time I had gradually prised the door of the rather too hot big kiln open, and by supper time I had managed to unpack it and have look at my table. It must work as a table, because I lost the lens cap of the camera shortly after taking this photo - because I had put it down on the ...TABLE!

I'm pleased with the top surface, the glaze is really smooth and tempting, like one big tile. It is still a strange beast, more of a character than a beauty, but I have a certain fondness for its eccentricity.




There has been a lot of glazing this week, and still a lot left to do, but it is great to see some new work out tonight.


It seems ages ago that I started these long dishes. They are difficult to fit in the kiln, so kept missing out. Long dishes need long things on them, hence comets and thin mermaids.


I've just packed the big kiln up again with my pelican seat. It is the only thing in it. I'm not convinced that it is totally dry yet but as the bricks are still pretty hot it's been stewing all evening. I'll see what the steam test looks like before I go to bed, and depending on that may bisc fire it tonight.

I was enjoying drawing on these dishes at the beginning of the week. They're drying out now and hopefully may be ready to bisc as Pelican comes out. It is back to back at the moment to get things finished for Potfest in the Park. Rodger is busy making me some extra display boxes at the moment, doing a little each day - he's on to the sanding stage now and it was a treat to have his company in the workshop this morning. The finger joints are a work of art in themselves, he was enjoying using my scroll saw for them. Pity to paint them over.

As an interlude from pots this week I did have Wednesday afternoon off to go to Kirkcudbright and play samba for the Queen - at least that is what I was told. But of course it was playing samba for the crowds WAITING for the Queen, NOT for her at all.

Anyway we saw the lady, small and bent in her lovely turquoise outfit with matching pill box hat, (surrounded by some even bigger and shinier hats of local dignitaries ). She arrived in a huge maroon limousine, did a quick tour of the harbour - I was told that the brave lady was given champagne and pate to sample, followed by a freshly grilled scallop from the local fishing boat. Then off she flew in her helicopter, at which point the heavens opened with a loud clap of thunder, and everyone dived for cover.
So just a glimpse of royalty but lots of strange cameos which might well appear on a pot one day.

Webbed feet and Web Sites

I have been working out how I am going to complete all that I hoped to make for Potfest, and so it was that I spent Sunday, Monday and Tuesday of last week solidly slip decorating a fair mountain of jugs, card racks, oil bottles and small dishes. I got quite stiff and had back ache by the end, but the reward is a LOT OF POTS on the shelves. One bisc load is now ready to glaze, including the table which fired beautifully flat. I have been enjoying putting a few cups on it.

Oh, and today I finished constructing the Pelican seat. It went pretty well until it came to the feet.

They took quite a bit of sorting out - the same challenge as the eagle seat, how to tie them into those great structural legs in a way which didn't look as though they were an after thought. I had to do a fair bit of looking at webbed feet, lots of images and sketches now lying around the workshop of these wondrous things.

Will it dry out in time for Potfest, and is it SAFE to let it dry too fast, The weather we have been having has been hot and windy, perfect for drying, but it has suddenly changed to humid and muggy. But maybe that will suit better.

I got my disc of photos back from Shannon, so here is the studio shot of the eagle seat. Would be nice to have an 'in situ' one outside, or in a lovely hall way, or landing, if anyone has one to spare.


I've been meaning to mention that Inigo has redesigned our original Barnbarroch Pottery web site. It has some good photos of the showroom and the area around us, though I still have a major job of taking some decent product shots to put on it. It is nice and easy for me to use though, so to be going on with I have just uploaded some 'snaps', with better images to come as soon as I have a moment...(AFTER Potfest).

Our original Barnbarroch Pottery site was one of the first sites Oskar made when still at university and though at the time he made a great job of it, somehow it had got terribly out of date, and I eventually decided to ask him to supersede it with my 'christinehestersmith' site on which I could display more of the one off pieces.

I was going to slowly phase out the Barnbarroch Pottery site but then realised that it still did actually serve a useful function. Visitors to the area needed a site which encouraged them to visit us here and which advertised the area plus something which might remind them of the designs they may have seen over the summer when they rang up later.



So two sites Smith I still am!

One of the many things which I would have loved to have done last weekend was to go to the opening of Jim’s ‘Seventy at Seventy’ exhibition at his Booth House Gallery. I had been a bit of a silly about this, or else missed a week somewhere in my planning, as I had rather thought that it was this weekend. By the time I realised it was all too complicated to organise and I never made it in the end. Never mind, it is on all summer so I will get to see some of his seventy pots even if I missed the celebratory aspect of such an esteemed achievement.

This one is strange

Got the top on my table on Friday. Hmm, making the top separately may not have been such a great idea, as it looks a little strange. Fish associations may have turned into more anvil/ ironing board, but we shall see. There is an eccentricity and a certain elegance which I quite like but I am not sure that the construction is controlling me rather than me the construction!

With this scale I had to have everything pretty firm before the assembly stage, and beyond the point of no return as far as altering things. Still, I do have a second one, (oh yes) under wraps so I will take the lesson on board and hope to improve.

I had to use my RSJ template again to secure the legs. I never thought of myself as an engineer - indeed an engineer I am most definitely not, Allie and I were discussing the intuitive and the planned as making approaches. I would have to call this structure 'intuitive engineering', the concept of which is possibly a bit of an oxymoron.
Nothing engineering about the latest dreadlocks. French knitting and quite addictive it is too.

Samba Sisters had a float at Kelloholm gala on Saturday. We wound round all the little back streets scaring several dogs, but being rewarded by a sea of smiling faces of all ages.

Meat pies, unidentifiable flat sandwiches, coloured cakes and fizz laid on for the performers, brilliant stuff!