Potty but not Potting

Very little pottery done this week. But I came across these Yellow phone boxes, while working in London this week. I didn't get any closer than this, as you never know if it's some kind of set up.
Anyway it's the weekend so I will be up at the crack of dawn trying to catch up.

New Glaze Firing - Opened today

Small Lidded Jar

Large Lidded Jar

Large Jug

Large Jug

Big bowl

Small white lipped bowl

Black bowl white slip decoration

Small black jug

Small jug

This is a selection of pots that have come out of the kiln today. It's one of those firings that has come out OK but not fantastic.

I sieved the strong yellow glaze with a 120 sieve since the last firing, in the hope I could reduce the amount of minute black speckles in the glaze, but they are still there and if anything the glaze has lost some colour. So although they are alright I feel just a Tad disappointed.

I told you I was Busy

Who's been a busy Boy -

Well OK, slightly over weight middle aged Man. Unloaded the Biscuit firing on Saturday morning and then glazed it all and put it back in the kiln for a Firing today. It's times like these that you really start to think about the merits of raw firing. I must admit I have tried one or two small pieces and it does seem to work. I think I might brave one or two more pieces next time.

I made all the small flower pots a few months ago, and Marion has potted them up for me, they are trailing lobelia, when the flowers come out they should look good, I'll take another shot then.

Sunday morning and it's pouring with rain today, but I still got up and lit my gas burners.

Barrington has an antiques fayre once a year and this morning we took a stroll down to the village hall. I found this lovely old jug, just like the ones on display in st Mary's church across the road. I let Marion do the bargaining with the man selling it, and she got it for a reasonable price and even better she paid for it.

Back to the workshop now to make more pots and keep an eye on the Glaze firing.

Good Day - Bad Day

One of those days when you do some good stuff and some bad stuff.

I made 10 small storage jars, by the time I had turned them I was down to 7.

I'm keeping up my promise to myself to only make good quality pots, and 3 just didn't make the grade. Marion came home later as I was just about to decorate the pots, and she took me up the pub for a few pints. So the decoration was done when we came back. All the pots have black slip with white slip decoration, these should be interesting because I had a much free er hand after a few pints.

I'm struggling with finding enough time to get things done. I seem to have so many things to do at the moment. I'm trying to get my web site up and running, sort out my stand for my first show, design some leaflets and basically design a complete range of pots.

I know the age old thing about you can't eat an elephant in one go, but I just want to get things done.

New Baby

Look at this loverly old chap, an Original Leach Kick Wheel, it's my new Baby. I just purchased it from a very nice man on Ebay this week. Thank you Graeme, you can be sure it's gone to a nice home, where it will be lovingly looked after for the rest of it's potting days.

I've been looking for one of these for a long time, I need to give it a name, any suggestions welcome.

The young man in the picture is Joshua, Nathan and Lousie's son,who has come to stay with us for the weekend. Nathan has taken these pictures of some of my last firing . As I said on the last post I'm very happy with the results.

Just thinking about the name what about " Bernard " ?

Glaze Firing Success

The Glaze firing went very well, so I was not quite so apprehensive when it came to opening the Kiln last night. It felt good if you know what I mean, and on opening the brick door I was not disappointed. This is my best firing so far, not one bubbled glaze, not one cracked pot, everything was good. What a wonderful feeling, it's taken me a year to get to this point, and now it all seems worth it. It's given me renewed faith in myself and some pots that are good enough to sell. This is it, this is the start of a new beginning. We went to the pub for a few beers after unpacking, and I just kept saying to myself "Wow"! Nathan is coming down at the weekend to take some pictures of the village for my web site, and I'll ask him to take some good shots of this kiln load, so hopefully some much better pictures at the end of the weekend.

Catching up and the Three Nun's

Oh what joy's to be rid of my chest infection. I feel so much better not being on antibiotics.

So I have had some catching up to do, I will run through the pictures for you, 1st, Marion has been busy in the garden potting up my flower pots. Then In a moment of madness! when trying to get a kink out of the hose pipe, Marion shot water across the garden towards a table of just glazed bowls. These weren't just any bowls, these were my best attempt yet at the old panchions. You should have heard the panic in Marion's voice as she shouted PAUL !!!. Luckily she managed to only soak the outside of the pans which are not glazed.

The third picture is a freshly slipped bowl, I just love them when they look like this. It's such a short time, a matter of minuets. The fourth picture is a Bowl I made last year, which I just think is so cool. If I could make pots that look like this all the time I would be very happy.

The next pot, a lidded Jar is a homage to Clive Bowen, I've had a postcard of a lidded jar of Clive's on my workshop wall for the past year as a bench mark. The last picture is a set of three jugs which I think look like Three Nun's. I spent all of today glazing pots and now have a kiln loaded and ready to fire.

The High's and Low's of Life.

These flowers around my Kiln just look Great at the moment, what is especially nice, is that we didn't plant any of them, they just seemed to appear like magic. I loaded the Kiln for a biscuit firing and then turned & slipped these three bowls, that had been sitting wrapped in plastic for the last two days. The next bag of clay I opened was quite firm, so I decided to make some larger jugs with it, only 6lbs in weight, but they are 30cm tall. I made three and had the clay ready for another two. but I stopped for a nice cup of tea and a sandwich, and that was it. Marion said the colour just drained out of me. I had to go and lie down on the sofa, and I stayed there for the rest of the day. Although I had felt better when I woke up, the chest infection still had a strong hold on me. I was so looking forward to a full day making pots.

The other bit and some Pots

I have been dealing with a bad chest infection for most of this week,which has kept me off work, but also out of the Workshop. I finally made it in there last night and was able to finish off these small lidded pots and get the slip on one of my new Jugs. I also remembered to take a shot down the other end of the road from the front gate, this time without an oil tanker.