My First Stockist & Clay Suppliers Yard

This is the shop that Brought my pots the other day. It's very up market and what is nice is that they don't look out of place. Thank you Elizabeth for restoring my faith and for showing me my market. I took this picture last week while I was at Commercial Clay in Stoke on Trent, the lads were on their tea break when I arrived ( well this is England what do you expect! ). This is the back yard not pretty but I liked the old bottle kiln in the background.

Thanks for all your nice comments on my last post, I was reading it again earlier, and I can't belive I said "I am a salesman". I hate salesmen, the last thing I want to be in the world is a salesman. I think what I meant was that I've been in sales for years and know the tricks of the trade, but would actually hate myself if I did all that kind of aggresive sales patter.

I didn't have to sell at all to this shop, they just loved them and wanted them, all I did was talk about the influences and process with some passion, because thats what it's all about.

This is what it's all about.

OK, you may want to read the previous post first, to understand what this one is all about.

I took my pots into a very upmarket shop in Ilminster this afternoon, in an attempt to get back in the saddle after this mornings Rodeo ride of emotions.

I took the very same pots in the very same Apple box and Sold the lot, What a difference.
This lady Loved them and I love this Lady.

I want to say a VERY BIG " THANK YOU" to Marion, who kept my spirits up this morning and kept me believing in myself. My first propper sale.

That feels good.

What's it all About

I had a phone call the other day from a lady that chooses art work for a local Gallery and Arts Meeting Centre in Ilminster, she wanted to see some of my work.
So I boxed up a nice selection and went to see her this morning.
She looked at my work, put some of them back down without a second glance, then shook her head and said "no we couldn't have these they look like they should be in the Seconds section at John Leach's pottery".
I'm sat here trying to think of what to write, to make this more interesting, but at the moment I feel as though I have had the stuffing knocked out of me " what's it all about!" what the F**k does she know? I'm a sales man, I'm used to rejection, I'm used to dealing with people who don't have a clue about design form or function, what this woman wanted was hand made pots that looked like they had been made in a factory. Whats the point in that !!
Ok ,I know my stuff may not be Gallery Material, but this was just a local arts centre. This has got right under my skin, this has kicked in my survival instinct, I'll show her.
I've just rung a very upmarket shop in Ilminster while I'm writing this and I'm going to take the same pots to them later on today. One thing you learn in sales, is that you must learn at least one thing from every rejection and use that to your advantage in the next call, and the next and the next.

Workshop Video

I've been playing with my new camera and with a bit of luck you should now be able to see a short video of my workshop.

Birthday Boy with a Sore Head

After yet another tedious day at work sat in a hotel lobby having meetings with my boss and some other mindless morons from an associated company. I sat there in a world of my own, thinking it's my Birthday what the hell am I doing here!

I could be making pots, I need to order some more Propane gas, I've got a workshop full of pots that need glazing.

Anyway I finally got home around 5.30pm. Marion had bought me a new Digital camera for my birthday ( 46 ) if you were wondering ,and we went to the pub with some friends, in fact we went to three pubs. so I am a bit worse for ware this morning.

The Ebb and Flow of Confidence

I've had these 4 jugs wrapped up in Plastic for at least 3 days, just because I wasn't feeling confident enough to decorate them. Finally I put some good music on in the workshop and went for it. I did the one in the second picture first, I had ideas of an elaborate design all planned out, but after I made the first two lines I decided that was all it needed. I think the pot stands up for it's self, that's a great feeling.

That gave me confidence to tackle the other three above it.

and then on to the Porridgers that I made at 6am on Monday morning, before going off to London for a days work.

Tea was a good choice

The Cream Tea turned out to be a very good choice, This church on the hill is our favorite, unfortunately no longer in use, but thanks to the redundant churches foundation it is always open to visitors. We also love this smaller church with three bells, both are in Stocklinch, which is just over the hill, we often walk the dogs around these, but it was nice to find out some more detail about them.

I already knew a pot had blown when I did my firing on Friday, lots of small pieces of clay appeared in both fire boxes when the kiln was at around 400 c. I guessed it was the big bowl, it also blew the cones down into the firebox, so I just had to rely on the digital pyrometer and the colour in the kiln.

More Tea Vicar ?

A bit of a dilema this weekend, we have been invited to the private view of the exclusive preview of art work by Bob Dylan on Saturday. There is also a walk around four local churches with details about the history of each of them ending up with cream tea in St Mary's in Barrington, the cream teas won.

So I gave the invite to the Bob Dylan show to Mick the bus in the pub ( he's the local bus driver and Artist ). so at least that's not gone to waste.

Sunday being Fathers day, my eldest daughter Laura is comming down on Saturday evening to spend Sunday with us. and Barrington Court the local National Trust house has Jazz in the gardens, bring your own picnic, so it's all sounding good.

As you can see I will be ready for a Biscuit Firing over the weekend as well.

The big bowl is my attempt at freeing up a bit on decoration. and the caserole is as a direct reaction to a quick visit I paid to the Michael Cardew Stoneware Exhibition at the Long room Gallery in Winchcombe.

LIFE

I just thought, we can all relate to this. it's by Edward Monkton.

A Sombre Week

Do things always happen in three's ?

Last Saturday saw the Funeral of our old Neighbour Bob Bristow, he had been ill for some time, Yesterday I attended the funeral of my best friends dad Norman Butler, his death at the age of 73 was unexpected to say the least, before I set off for the funeral Marion and I were talking at breakfast and said we wonder who is next, because these things always seem to happen in three's. I hadn't driven an hour up the road when Marion called me to say she had just been told that one of her good friends husband had died on Monday. I think that makes us all safe for a while. on a cheerier note we have this plant growing in the garden, it's now reached 6ft but we have no idea what it is, I'm expecting fellow blogger Andrew to come up with the goods on this one. off to work for now. a good day to you all, enjoy life while you can.

Taking Stock

Well, what a weekend so far !

On Saturday morning we went through all my pots I've made so far and sorted them into three groups. The Good the Bad and the Ugly.

Unfortunately Lee Van Cleef came out on top. well not quite.

It turned out to be a very therapeutic process that made me realise that I have made some good progress over the past year, and best of all I have made some good pots.

The good ones got priced up and stored in old apple boxes in the spare bedroom, any visitors will just have to squeeze past them. The not so good have been put outside the front of the cottage labeled seconds and trials, Free. Donations to St Mary's Church Barrington, while I am sat here writing this blog I can hear people outside rummaging through the box.

The ugly have been put to one side to be smashed with a Hammer.

The whole process made me realise what I like and what I don't like about my own work. Unfortunately the biscuit fired pots in the workshop came under even closer scrutiny whilst I still had the hammer in my hand.

But as you can see from this last picture, I was inspired by the Contemporary Crafts Fair at Bovey Tracey and got stuck into making some good stuff over the past few days.

We are off to Bovey again today to see how Doug, Hannah and Paul have faired over the past few days. Hopefully I will resist buying a hand made felt hat that I tried on last time.

Inspired by Contemporary Crafts

Last night we went to the private view of the Contemporary Craft Fair at Bovey Tracey in Devon. Mr Fitch had kindly posted us some invitations, we met up with Doug, Hannah, and Paul Young, all well organised with stands looking great. We had a chance to look around while know one else was there.

When we arrived no one was there, Hannah had gone off to find a shower and a change of clothes while Doug and Paul had found the local traditional English pub.

If you get a chance to go it's well worth it the show that is, not the pub. The Quality is outstanding with a good selection of crafts. We are going back again over the weekend we liked it so much.

This morning I was so full of inspiration from the show that I got up at 6am and went out to the workshop and made 8 2.5lbs jugs before 8am. I was trying to make my 3lb jugs using half a pound less clay, so that the finished jugs are lighter, we shall see.

One for Ron

These two Pictures are for you Ron. Who's a good boy then ? This will give the impression that I am well organised and neat and tidy. Yea Right !!