Very Old Toilet and a Harvest Jug Slipped

A Friend of ours has found these two very old toilets in his parents shed, He is building a new house at the moment and is thinking of putting the two of them side by side surrounded in an oak wooden frame, but one of them is in poor condition.

If anyone can shed some light on them, we would be most grateful.

I decided to do my simple yet effective slip decoration on the Harvest Jug, I thought long and hard about putting lots of writing on it but decided against it.

Four Bowls a Harvest Jug and a Wedding

If you saw some of my very early post's, you would have seen that I was into a Sgraffito design based upon the local hills. When these came out of the Kiln I decided it wasn't the look I wanted.
Eventually I have now come up with using the same design Idea but with a different Technique.

I much prefer this effect, it feels more like me, if you know what I mean

I know this one is wrong but only I know why!!!

With this one I was looking to make the bottom line, but my tool caught the top edge as it went around, but I liked it as it was , no further decoration required. I think this is the big issue with me I like it simple.

Having just said all that, I have had a first shot at producing a Harvest Jug, but these are usually decorated on every available inch. The trouble is, if I don't decorate it in the original style, would it still be classed as a Harvest Jug ?

The bulbous belly was inspired by a look in the mirror.

This was the back of the church at last weekends wedding, you can just see the bell ringers at the back. And for all of you fashion experts you can see Marion opted for the Classic black hat.

Local Produce Market

This was my stall at the village Hall Yesterday morning. It was the local produce market and only on between 10am and 12 Noon, I didn't do to bad, I sold 7 pots 2 mugs two of the small bowls on the left hand side and three small jugs. The next one is in September and I have been asked if I can go to that one, which I will, I enjoyed it.

I met a man who knew one of the last potters at Donyatt called Augustus Arlidge, Here is a photo of him taken from this book.

I was also taken to the committee room to see for myself the Barrington Pitcher also in this book.

I'm going to try and make some copies as I think they would sell well in the village, The village raised funds to buy this one at auction about 3 years ago, I believe it cost over £1,000.

Mine might be a bit cheaper.

Then we went to a country wedding in the next village called Puckington, where our friends John and Liz got married. Marion and Me managed to clear the dance floor twice in one evening with our dance floor antics. Great fun had by all.

Poppycock and Fiddlesticks

My Eldest Daughter, Laura loves looking in on our blogs, It helps to keep her up to speed with my work and life. And now she has started her own blog called Poppycock and Fiddlesticks.
If ever you have put off making a pot you should read this.

http://laurajessop.blogspot.com

I was going to embarrass her with a cute picture of her when she was Five, but I think if I look a bit harder I can find a better one..... watch this space.

PS while writing this my favorite little Robin has come and sat on the back door step.

Barrington Local Produce Market 26th July

We spent a couple of hours this afternoon putting together my stand

for The Barrington Local Produce market.

It's only a small show in the Village Hall between 10 -12 Noon.

But it is the first time I will have put my pots on show.

The Green Slip and Cup & Saucer

This is the green slip trial that came out of the firing last week, I'm not that keen on it as it is a mottled effect which was not what I was after.

This is the first cup and saucer I have made for over 20 years. The Idea with this off set saucer is that it gives you room to put some biscuits on the saucer.

A visit from the Quality Police in my Head Today

Sunday Afternoon and we spent the afternoon with our friends Rob & Shirley, Rob showed us his E Type Jaguar which he has had for 35 years.

In the middle of our roof was a beautiful Red admiral butterfly but by the time I got the Camera, it had closed it's wings, but it is there.

In my head I had a visit from the Quality Police, and these pots were pulled up for being poor without a reason.

I had a good clear out today, and these are my tools.

Half way into a big pot.

And this was the end product.

Hokey Cokey Pots

The weather couldn't make up its mind yesterday, these pots were in and out of my workshop more times than I care to remember. I even resorted to placing a cravat on this jug, to stop the rim drying out.

Are you sitting Comfortably - this is a long one

Well what a day!.

We opened the Kiln about half past 3 today, following the Glaze firing Yesterday.
Probably my best Firing yet, with these three pots that Marion decorated using under glaze colours coming out very well. this was the first time Marion has ever decorated a pot.
The results have started my mind racing with Ideas, because I have never used under glaze colours before and the possibilities are endless.

I'm very pleased with this big dish, the idea behind these, is that they look old and quirky the green glaze on the edge is roughly painted on.

This bowl is a wedding present for our friends John and Liz who are getting married a week on Saturday, so that's good for me the pressure is now off to get the present sorted.

This mug was a trial glaze, a new recipe I put together myself, I had two new trial glazes in this firing the other was OK but not what I was looking for.

Loads of good pots out of this firing but this is the one that has got me all excited, just one small mug, but the colour is just what I have been trying to reach, it's got depth, clarity, shine and it fits the body really well, not a craze mark in sight.

This is one of three big jugs to come out of this firing.

This post shows the day the way round wrong, because we started the day going out to buy an old stone trough for the garden, and when we got back my new gas burner was sitting on the doorstep, an absolute bargain off EBay at £34.00

While we were out we went through a local village called Aller, who this weekend have their annual scarecrow competition. we couldn't go past without getting a few pics for the blog.

This Amy Winebox one was our favorite.

What an exciting day, I'm all fired up for a weekend of potting.

Glaze Firing Today

I've been glaze firing today, and keeping myself busy trying to take photos of pots for the web site. here are a selection, not all of these will make it to the web site.

I was glazing until 10.30 pm last night and up again at 6am turning my kiln burners on, it's still going and should finish around 6.30pm. Just in time to go and see a few Friends up the pub.

Happy Birthday Marion - Bottoms up

This post was going to something totally different, but Marion took a few pots from the biscuit firing and sat in the garden with a few pots of under glaze colours and some paint brushes.

To be honest we are both feeling a bit worse for ware today. Yesterday was Marion's Birthday and we had a few to many beers in the pub last night. so a not very productive day all round today.

I was reading Ron's blog about making some bowls that he didn't really want to do, but soon got into them once he found a good form. Well I have been trying to make some Pasta bowls for days now, and i just can't get the enthusiasm up for them, I made a selection to see if I can find a shape I like, I tried different bottoms on them and then slipped them.

Then Marion popped her head into the workshop and said what do you think to this.

She has never decorated a pot in her life before today, I think she has done a cracking job.

Is There a Slip Doctor in the House ?

Look at these Peas Marion has picked this morning, they look right tasty, especially in this Doug Fitch Bowl. At least the Peas were the green colour they were supposed to be, it's a shame the same can't be said for my new Green slip.

Opened the Bisc firing yesterday, I had made up a batch of green slip luckily I did a test pot. 100% Ball Clay 5% Copper Carbonate. The recipe said Copper Oxide, but I didn't have any so I used Copper Carbonate. any suggestions would be welcome.

Don't worry about the cone not bending, that was just a precautionary measure to stop me over firing.