Off to the Pub

It's friday night so were of too the pub for a few well earned Pints.
One for rons video, one for Doug's Firing, and one each for Matt, Andrew and Hanna.
that should just about floor me.

Biscuit Firing

Hi, it's 8pm and I have just turned off my Biscuit Firing, nothing very exiciting about that I know. But this is the first time I feel as though I have taken the Kiln by the scruff of the neck and felt confident about the firing all the way through. Marion says that since I have been doing the blog and speaking to you guys my confidence has grown. So I just wanted to say thank you.

Leach Pottery Restoration Project Auction

Today at Lunch time I went to have a look at the pots up for Auction at Bonhams

in New Bond Street - London. For the Leach Pottery restoration Project.

I was able to talk to Harry Isaacs, who was a potter at St Ives with Bernard Leach, Harry introduced me to Lady Carol Holland Chair of the Bernard Leach (St Ives) Trust ltd.

I also met John Bedding also a past potter at St Ives and now owner of the St Ives Gallery. He had put the exhibition together, and the photos above of Bernard are taken from his article in the Catalogue. They were lovely people and Harry has said that he would give me a personal tour of the Restored workshops. I wasn't able to stay for the Auction itself as that started at 6.30pm. but they had been surprised by the amount of interest it had generated. They are due to open to the public on Saturday the 8th March. I asked permission to take some photos for the blog, and they wanted to know about us. Harry even gave me his email and phone number to arrange a private tour. How about that guy's who's up for that ?.

Unfortunately my pictures didn't come out very well, even with the flash. The Large vase is by Seth Cardew and had a guide price of £800 - £1000 .The dish is by Mary Wondrausch. Sorry Hannah, I went to scan the picture from the Catalogue, but found it had been torn out of my copy. Ok it's Wednesday morning and i've had a look at the Bonhams website. it looks like they raised around £39,935 from the sale. Some items didn't sell, Clive Bowens big jug went for £220. and Mary's Dish went for £280. That's cheap, and the Seth Cardew pot sold for £800. I hope they raised as much as they had hoped for.

Look at These !

We just popped into a local shop today that sells Pottery and Antiques and look what Marion Found. These two signed prints are signed by Bernard Leach one was number 9 of 100 and the other was 41 of 200. They had just come in and the asking price was £300 each. So needless to say we came out without them. We know the lady that works in the shop and she let me take these photos for the Blog. I've never seen anything like this for sale before.

Big Ben - Breadbin & Bernard

I had a meeting in central London this morning just around the corner from Big Ben so I took this picture for Ron. The meeting went well and I was able to head back home early and decorate the big bread bin, sorry the picture is not in focus, I will try harder next time.

I wondered if anyone else had been sent one of these Invitations to the Auction at Bonhams.

The auction is of over 100 studio potters pots that have been donated to raise money for the leach restoration project. The Auction is on the 26th Feb with viewing on Monday and Tuesday 9am - 4.30pm. I'm thinking of going to have a look on the Tuesday morning.

Action Shots

Just a couple of action shots, with Mad Murphy getting in on the act.

It's Hotelympia week

Hi, I am at the Hotelympia exhibition this week, in my full time job as a contracts manger.

It's at the Excel exhibition centre in London. I was there all day Sunday and only spoke to two customers. Yesterday i spoke to about 5 customers. i've got today off, so i'm going to try and finish off these lids before i'm back on the stand tomorrow. I love doing the shows normally and the bussier the better, but when it drags it's so frustrating. I had time for a good look around the show to find an interesting shot for the blog, but the best thing i could come up with was this sunset on the M25 on my way home last night. There are all the big pottery companies here, Wedgewood, Churchill, etc etc. the stuff is all the same, apparently hotels only want white, know wonder hotels are so drab to stay in. any way just a thought I was thinking of getting the marketing details of these guys and offering my services as a pottery demonstrator for one of these exhibitions. I'll let you know how i get on. My good friend at work Doug Morgan is on the stand with me tomorrow so we should have fun. Doug has his own Band called Cardinal Fink and he writes songs, sings and plays guitar. I'm going to show him my Blog tomorrow, I haven't told anyone else at work about my pottery plans apart from Doug.

Neither of us should be working in this sort of job, but some times it's harder to get out of the rat race without stuffing up the lives of the people around you.

Cadbury the Chocolate Labrador

This is Cadbury our Chocolate Labrador, One of the nicest Dogs you could ever wish to meet

He's just over two years old and we have had him since he was a little puppy.

We also have Mad Murphy a Lurcher cross Deer hound, that this week tried to actually bring down a deer in a local field, Luckily we always put a muzzle on him when we take him out. That's not him on the bird feeder, he's proving harder to get a good picture of but when I do I'll add him here. Actually Nathan took these Pictures, that's why they are so good. He sent me a disc of the pictures he took last weekend for my web site. I must say they are Fantastic, although I didn't realise I took on the appearance of a Hamster when leaning over my Wheel. This little chap above appeared last Sunday while we were all tucking into Marion's Fantastically cooked Roast Shoulder of Lamb. Recipe from Jamie Olivers Book " at Home with Jamie".

More Old Pictures

The first picture was taken when I was a Full Time Potter back in 1982.

Look at the pots balanced on the back of the chair, the other end was balanced on the window ledge.

The Bread Bin above I made in 1979 when I did my 'A' Level in Pottery. This is the one I am trying to make again. It had some nice decoration which showed the pottery making process, from digging clay to throwing and wood firing, you can just see the Kiln on the right hand side of the lid.

Busy Day

One of those days, when I just felt like getting into it. I have an Idea of a large bread bin that will be decorated on the outside, this one is about 15 inches wide and 9 inches tall. I last made one of these when I was 17 and I remembered it took 14lbs of clay, so I started with that and this was the result. One of my jugs was effected by frost so I cut it in half to see what the wall was like, I was quite happy with this. I made some bowls as I am trying to make some basic stock Items. I then decorated some of my new style mugs, which I am very pleased with. It's friday so we're off to the pub for a few well earned Pints of Grolsch.

Happy Valentines Day

York - Old York , so good they only named it once.

I had to go to York on Tuesday for a meeting with a contractor, as part of my full time job as a contracts manager. I was able to take a bit of time out at Lunch to walk around the old streets of York, and buy my Lover Marion a Valentines day card. Shoosh!!! don't tell her.

Beware - Jack Frost.

Brannam Potters Circa 1975

Interesting day today. Marion's son Nathan came around with his wife Louise and little baby Josh, they brought with them some friends, Sam & Kerry, Sam creates web sites and Nathan is a camera man for Sky News. We put together the basic outline for my new web site, and Nathan took some fantastic photos. When I was looking through my old photos I found these two pictures that my brother took at Brannam Pottery in Barnstaple when we were on holiday back in 1975.

Walking the Dogs

What a Beautiful day. I took these while I was out walking the dogs today,

I thought it might give you a flavour of what it's like around here.

Pots from my last firing

This is a selection to come out of the last firing in Jan 08. The kiln fired to around 1060 with a 20 minute soak, but I think i'll take the next one to around 1080.

Ok Doug this is my starter for 10

I found this picture of me at the age of 12 I think. I was hand building some pots. The chess pieces on the wheel head, were my dads idea, I made them and he sold them at work which helped to fund my habit. I think that was my mums overall from work I was wearing, I couldn't fit in that now!!

The second picture was taken in about 1979 so I would have been about 17. The room with the two windows in the background without the curtains was my workshop at the back of my Parents house in Stevenage. The dog was called Patch.