Spring Fling 2014

This years Spring Fling saw what was a record number of visitors to our studio over the three days.

It started early this year with a Friday evening opening which was a lovely low key affair with mainly friends, wine and good chat. What it did mean was that we were very much more relaxed on the Saturday morning having already got the place ready and having had a 'dry run'.

Visitors arrived pretty well straight away on Saturday morning and kept coming, and coming. Some old faces, some new faces and all lovely interested and interesting people.

It was a pleasure to have Wendy Kershaw come down and share the studio again this year. It added a visual feast for the visitors plus it was so much fun for us to have her. Mind you, even with three of us manning the pumps it was hard to find time to grab a snack. I wish I had found time to take more photos, I just kept forgetting where the camera was. 

On Sunday we were joined by the Dumfries African drumming group Africadabra who played outside in the sunshine and enjoyed themselves so much they stayed all afternoon, all adding to the general feeling of quite a 'Happening on the Corner'.

This year we added some extra display boards in the back shed for my long dishes. It worked well with yet more for folk to discover.

I had fun filling the garden with my ceramic pieces such as 'Toys for Boys' who looked happy following Terracotta Tours along the bus route.

It took most of Tuesday to put the workshop back to rights but this afternoon I got back to some mugs which I threw last week. Quiet and calm slowly descends once again on Barnbarroch.

Thank you to all those who called in, it was lovely seeing you and we really appreciate your interest and encouragement.

A long day's glazing

Its been a long day but that's it - the kiln is on at last. Actually it's been a long few days. As always I underestimated the time it takes to glaze. I think I've done all the work making and drawing but then I still have glazes to mix, apply, wax and dip. 

It's my own fault that I left this all to finish off today. It was a lovely weekend and too good to miss the chance to scrub and tidy up the outside of the pottery. I thought 'I can easily finish the glazing on Monday'. 

Well that was quite a Monday, I have hardly had time to look up! Every time I did look up I saw something else which needed to be finished. It all got a bit late and several rather large spillages of glaze over my feet towards the end didn't help. My pots tend to have too many ends to pour glaze out of, and even with a wide container I need eyes which swivel every-which-way. Then there was a thunder storm so it all got very dark and light-flickery. Thankfully it looks like the storm has now passed, so maybe it's actually a good thing that it was eleven by the time I started the firing. (Don't want any power cuts mid fire cycle)!

So hopefully all will be finished for 'Spring Fling' this coming weekend. This year we have elected to do the Friday night opening. Do come if you are able, the more the merrier! 

Pots in May

There are two weeks to go now until Dumfries and Galloway's Open Studios event 'Spring Fling'. This year Wendy Kershaw is once again coming down to share my studio space. It was really great having her last year. Having two people to welcome and chat to visitors made it a lot more fun.

             

I have already put aside some of my new work for this, though there is more to finish and there is always more that I would have liked to have made. Being on show at home means it is time again for the annual Spring Fling Spring CLEAN. This afternoon I took the showroom apart and got the windows washed inside and out. Plenty more to do but at least I've made a start.

I took the best of my new wave vases down to the Red Barn Gallery, but I wanted to build on the theme while it was still working for me and make some more for Spring Fling. Series two is underway and now trying to dry out in this damp slack low pressure which is May. 

Here are a couple of tree plaques which came out of the last kiln. I love the way the first extrusions splay before the clay settles into a flow. I only get a couple like this from each set, so they become quite special.

I like the movement in these surf dudes, but they need a little more colour, so I think I'll risk putting them back in the kiln again, maybe.

 These are the new double headed Tall bird vases.

And this is 'Toys for Dogs Too', the partner of 'Toys for Boys' which was exhibited at Gracefield Arts Centre at the Spring Fling exhibition. I'm looking forward to displaying them as a pair. I still have the road from 'Terracotta Tours' to put them on, so they will have quite a race.

If I don't manage another post before then, maybe see you at Spring Fling. Rumour has it there may even be an African drumming group coming along on one of the days to entertain (and hopefully not make any pots go bouncing off shelves). 

Fish and clouds

At last, I have a batch of new pots, all finished over the last few weeks. It has been a great relief to get some pleasing results after the rather uncomfortable run of glaze problems. It is only now that the cloud has lifted that I realise just quite how oppressive and anxious that cloud was.

 So after a long wait I have now some new work which I am happy with.

I started this series of sea and river section vases in February, never exactly sure where they were heading, but always enjoying the journey they were taking me on. The vase is inserted and goes right down through the section so they actually take flowers quite nicely. The vase section of this one could be seen as a kind of ship with flags, a submarine or a flag iris. The tufted ducks don't really care.

                                              

I was working on this one during the flooding of the Somerset levels and thinking about the great biblical flood.These swimming animals are inlaid in white slip - I wanted them to look ghostly amongst the fishes, who are enjoying the extra water to swim in.

 This jaunty vase looked happily mad when tested with a bunch of Easter daffodils. 

                   

                                                 

 On the same theme and from the same die, these are some smaller sailing vessel vases.  I put one out in the showroom the day it came out of the kiln, as much to see how it looked, and someone came in minutes later and bought it. It is both rewarding but also a bit devastating when that happens. I like to get to know my pieces of work a little better and for a little longer before saying goodbye.

Fishy Clouds - it must be the wet season we have had, for fish and water seem to have been very much the theme so far this year.

 

I will be selecting a group of these for my show opening May1st at the Red Barn Gallery  Melkinthorpe, near Penrith. There is just one last kiln firing this evening with potential work for it. The Red Barn is not just a lovely gallery, it shares premises with the amazing Larch Cottage nurseries (the largest variety of plants I have ever seen, most of which are propogated on site),  and the Greenhouse Restaurant which is a very nice place to eat. So a day out there is well worth it if you like plants, food and ceramics!

TFB in the 'Spring Fling At Home' Exhibition

Each Year 'Spring Fling' puts on an exhibition in which everyone who is taking part in the region's 'Spring Fling' open studio event has to put in a piece of their work. It is a difficult exhibition to put on, work ranges from paintings, in hugely different styles and mediums, to furniture, handmade shoes, ceramics, sculpture, textiles - to name just a few. So to pull this huge range of work together into a coherent show is a huge challenge.

This year it was curated in a very different way, showing 'Art and Craft in a domestic setting'. I missed the opening last weekend but called in on Friday. It does really seem to work and is probably the best Spring Fling show ever. Everything had been very carefully thought about with great care taken over each piece.

I eventually found my contribution, 'Toys for Boys' upstairs on a table covered in an old lace table cloth. Velvet curtains by the window matched the yellow body of the vehicle, and there was even a dry spotted leaf taking up the colours.

The car does have a musty yellow feel to it and this has been picked up on. Thanks folks! I tend to be pretty fussy over the way my work is displayed, but I loved this.

I only took a few other photos to give a taste of the show. This year is the first time that Archie McCall is taking part in Spring Fling with his fine stoneware -  and about time I say... 

Hannah McAndrew's lovely warm wood fired pots looked well on the handmade table.

Wendy Kershaw's ceramic picture, well lit where the window light catches it.

Amanda Simmon's enormous glass platter, dancing against the light.


A show well worth getting along to have a look at, it runs until 3rd May.

Frogs in Perthshire

While I was busy with the weekend demo, Rodger was enjoying the frogs. Kindrogan Field Centre was a beautiful setting for the Scottish Potters Association gathering. 

My co- demonstrators were Simon Griffiths who makes animal sculptures and Lisa Hammond who makes shino and soda glazed thrown ware using the wheel. Of course I didn’t get to see the other two which was a shame, but I got reports and pictures from Rodger Above is Lisa blow torching her large pot in an attempt to dry it off a little.

Then using a paddle to knock it into shape.

Simon was a delight and captured everyone's heart with his light humour and Joie de Vivre.

Here he is describing the angle of ears. It's just a pity I never got a photo of the dodo costume which he and his family made for the evolution ceilidh. The dashing White Sergeant with the middle one riding a dodo is quite something.

When one works quietly away on one's own, a room full of watching people is a little daunting at first.

It was hard to fit in so many aspects of the making process into two days. The clay was very soft and there was no drying to be had so it  had to be encouraged to firm up with the aid of a rather vicious gas burner. This was an either all or nothing affair and the audience were in danger of being scorched. My attempts at throwing on a strange wheel, (with a control pedal which worked in the opposite way to my own one), were not impressive. So I can’t say that I made the best job of my demo pieces, but my audience were kind and appreciative. As the weekend progressed I relaxed more and things began to go better! In fact it was most rewarding to be able to pass on tips and inspire others to have a go at new techniques.

I had some wonderful helpers, so thank you to them especially, and to everyone's interest, patience and kind comments.

How the place had changed.

While going through images for my presentation I came across this photo of Barnbarroch Old School in 1978 shortly after we moved in. (It had been closed for about ten years prior to this). During the year it took to get the building workable I was making pots in the old soup kitchen on the right of the photo. It had running water and an old sink, so was an ideal space to get started with my brand new bright yellow 'Potters Mate' wheel. I remember it being pretty cold in the winter and boiling hot in the summer. In this photo it looks like we have already glassed in the porch and turned it into a (very small) showroom where my first pots were displayed on boards balanced on kiln bricks.

For many years we kept chickens in the playground for  many years, only when we turned their run into a car park did we have to pass them on.

It is easy to forget how much we have done to the place over the years. Today the hedges and trees which Rodger planted are mature and happy - the one behind the bikes is an aspen brought up as a sapling from Yorkshire.

We extended the old porch showroom outwards in 2001, a date which we will always remember as we struggled to re-open for Easter, only to have the road closed in either direction by the army while cattle were slaughtered in an effort to control the Foot and Mouth epidemic. Horrid times.

These lovely sunny photos were taken at Spring Fling late May. This week the rain has stopped at last and suddenly it seems possible to believe that there will be a Spring again.

Today I have been slowly gathering up all I might need to take to demo at the Scottish Potters Annual gathering at Kindrogan in Perthshire this weekend. I just hope the car will be big enough - seems like I am taking the whole workshop.

More bisc pots and still none glazed - but nearly there.

Another  bisc kiln to join the other pots waiting to be glazed. I have much to finish off and yet I am still making new work. Still, once everything is sorted hopefully there will suddenly be loads of new pieces to show.

I am cautiously glazing the Waterboys one by one gradually building up confidence in the clay and glaze fit. There are some customers waiting patiently for some to be finished, so I will be so relieved to have one or two problem free results. I am leaving those until last, just because I so want them to be perfect! This small boat is in the kiln tonight, so fingers crossed.

I

I have still only mixed a small amount of the new (hopefully resolved) glaze so I used the spray gun to apply it rather than pour. The matt glaze does tend to show dribbles so would be difficult to apply such a small amount well by pouring. Last summer we upgraded the spray booth extension by replacing the thin polythene with clear table cloth fabric. It is much better, having a good weight to it, so it doesn't flap around like the thin sheets did.

 Meanwhile I have also been working on some more extruded dishes with edges and handles. The design is drawn with slip and then with a knife. Oh it's good to be going forward with new work. 

Thanks once again to Lark Books for including me in the new publication 500 Figures in Clay. I really didn't expect to have an image selected for this one, and am delighted to be amongst such good company.