Very Old Tea Pot

This is a Teapot I made when I was about 16. It was inspired by a visit to Michael Leach's workshop when I was about 13. I have never had the courage to add a cane handle, But I think I will start looking for one this year. I had a Bisc firing on Saturday which went well. I have a weeks holiday now so I should be very busy in the workshop over the next week.

Spooky Stone

An inspired day today. Having seen Ron's pots this morning on the blog, we then took the dogs for a walk before taking a look at Marion's vegetable patch at the bottom of the garden. Where I found this stone with a face. It's just a stone! it was sat next to the path just looking at me. It hasn't got anything on it, it's just as I found it, a bit spooky considering it's Easter Sunday. We decided to give it a home in the Tea Light holder and we have hung it on the arch into the Veg patch.

The big pot has black slip painted all over with white slip trailed decoration. It reminded me of something Michael Cardew might have made. When I went into the house to get the camera I walked past the Kitchen table. I just thought it looked nice especially because they are all my pots.

An Assortment of Jugs

Jugs drying out ready for the slip decoration.

You can see my Kiln in the background along with a completed jug on the ground.

Visited Doug Fitch

Visited Doug the other day, as you can see we are both looking well.

More Pictures

Some more pics of the glaze firing. The bowls in the top picture came out ok, but since I have seen the new glaze on the right of the second picture, i've decided all the others will be done in this new glaze. The bowl on the left is another new glaze which is a clear glaze, and it has a lovely feel to it, very old fashioned, I don't think this pic does it justice. The decorated Jar has a bit of bubbling of the glaze, but the colour isn't as good as I might have hoped for. The three amigos in the next pic are all new glaze tests. The one that looks black is actually a very stong Aubergine colour. And the last picture is what you see as you stubble down the steps in the garden while trying to take pictures of pots. ( no humans were hurt in the taking of this shot ).

Some Glazing Success

It's a cold wet day, and the kiln cooled down quickly. So this afternoon to cheer us up, we had a look in the Kiln, it was remarkably cool. Most of the pots were OK just a few with the glaze bubbling where they had over hung the kiln shelf. The pictures were taken in the hall way, with the lights on, so they don't show the colours very well. I was pleased with the two large bowls, I think both of these have scope for further development. I was also pleased with the mugs, I don't think these ones will burn you knuckles when they are full of Tea. The Lidded jar has come out OK but this one is a bit to busy in design. The four smaller bowls were all test glazes, this picture does not do them any justice as the colours are very nice. What do you think ?.

Glaze Firing Success

I woke up early today and decided to do the Glaze firing a day early, I started it at 7am. "A bit of a gamble", because my two gas bottles were due to be delivered today, so I started it slow in an attempt to eek out the gas until the new bottles arrived. To my surprise!, they kept going and my new bottles only turned up at 3pm. The first ran out at 3.30pm so that was a bit close. The upshot was that I was able to reach 1080 at 9pm this evening. I reduced the pressure this time for a slower more gradual temperature rise. I am quite sure I have reached the right temp this time. Later in the day I found this picture of a Michael Cardew Pitcher made in 1926 and apparently decorated by Bernard Leach. It sold at auction last year for £12,000 pounds. I decided to have a go at making one while I was waiting for the kiln to reach temperature.

As you can see I failed miserably, but I know the reason, my clay was to soft and I couldn't use my burner to stiffen it up as it was heating the Kiln. Sunday Morning should be Kiln Opening time, so more pictures then.

The Good the Bad and the Ugly

OK Two good things first, The Mug is by Jayne Hamlyn, I must have had this at least 12 years now . it sits on the dresser in the kitchen, never used it just liked it. I seem to remember paying £12 for it. The large bowl has a band of Black Slip applied using my slip trailer, I like the uneven application, done with a freer hand, it's all about having the courage to just do it and live with the result. Something I seem to find hard to do, but it was so liberating. If you think it looks crap let me know and I'll just crawl back under my shell.

The Kiln is full and ready for a glaze firing, this time with three new glaze recipes. I'm hoping to fire on Saturday. I decided to hold a few pots back, as I think some of the new glazes would look better on them if the samples come out OK. So to fill a few gaps I've put in some small flower pots that wont matter if they fire at 1080. I've really enjoyed the last two evenings in the workshop playing Pink Floyd Dark side of the moon, hopefully not to loud, anyway the neighbour's are still away. But as you Can see from the last shot, I don't have much room to work in.

You how in the world there is this life balance thing, for every stupid thing that happens on one side of the world something very good happens on the other side.

Well I think this applies here, on one side of the world you have Ron's clean workshop and on the other you have mine.

Wild Night

We laid in bed last night listening to roof tiles slip down the roof. I wasn't looking forward
to getting up to asses the damage. but as it turned out. these missing tiles were from our neighbours side of the roof. They are away at the moment, but we have rung them and their builder is coming along later today to sort it out.

Those were the days

As you can see Doug ,we must have had the same Tailor in the Eighties.

Jugs in St Marys Church Barrington

Today I finally got around to taking some photos of the great Jugs they have on display in our local Village Church. I say Finally, it was more a case of what else can I do to put off making up some more Glaze samples. I also rang the organisers of a local show called Yesterday's Farming and booked myself a " Trade Stand". They were lovely people and they asked me if I wanted to go in the craft tent, when I said no I want to have my own stall they said " Oh you want a trade stand" as if it were some awful crime to have a trade stand. Any way I've booked up my first show for 16th & 17th August this year in Puckington a Village just down the road from us. I'll give more details about this later. As you can see I did get around to making up some samples eventually on the Kitchen table. You might recognise one of Doug Fitch's Jugs in the window, which is a constant source of inspiration.

New Bread Bin and Stuff

What a busy week, I'm cream crackered. Unfortunately no potting done so far.
I've had meetings in London on Tuesday and Wednesday but all work related stuff. Then on Wednesday evening we met up with my eldest Daughter Laura, and her Boyfriend Jim, for an evening meal in Putney. Laura & Jim live in London and they are both doing Masters Degrees.
We stayed at our next door neighbours house in Putney, while they went off to Poland for 4 days.
We tried to get to see the Terracotta Army at the British Museum on the Thursday Morning but we were to late to get tickets, it's pretty much sold out, and only on until the 6th April. so we had a look around the National Gallery, which was great. In the afternoon we went to the Tutankhamun exhibition at the Dome. I saw it when it first came here back in 1972 when i was 10. and it was Fantastic then, something I have never forgotten. Marion has been to Egypt but didn't see it. so we were both looking forward to it. But what a dissapointment, poor exhibition not even the famous golden mask. Anyway we found a great pub in Central London called the Lamb & Flag. we then went to see the Mousetrap at St Martins theatre, which was great.

This pot is a bread bin out of the last Firing.

Flower pot Day

Chatting to Marion the other day about ideas we had for the Garden, and I said when are you going to do that then ? She said when you've made me some flower pots.
So never being one to dissapoint Marion, Have a look at these baby's.