Having a nice weekend

This is a 6 pint Casserole I have been asked to make

when I had finished it I was really pleased with the shape

and I liked the shape of these little jugs.
The weather man said we should be able to see
Jupiter & Saturn in the night sky
so I went out for a look and guess what .
Walking the dogs this morning in the local farm.
It was wonderful to walk through the village this morning.
with people just waving at us as we walked past their houses.
We are so lucky to live in a beautiful village before we went to
Barrington Court for the Christmas Fayre.
Where I found some interesting pieces.
This tile panel was gorgeous


This was one of the Stalls

and I found this big bottle sat in a dark corner

I put it in the window to take some pictures.

Close detail of the neck

and this Slipware jug was in a fire place.

Some days just feel good and this was one of them.

Look What I Found in My Sketch Book !!

These sketches may prove hard to see, but I found them in my sketch book.

It just goes to show how we are affected by our surroundings.

These sketches were Ideas I was working on when I used to spend most of my day driving around London.

These were going to be what are called Installation Art.

The pots were going to be 18" tall
I'm not sure what I was going to do with this one.

This one was a development of the first one,
The pots were going to be white with a bright red one for the Bus and a black one for the Cab.

I don't miss my old job at all not one little bit.
and I've never worked so hard in my life.

How Bizzar !!
I just looked at my last post and look at the top sketch
then look at the row of Tankards
do do do do ....

A Close Shave

I Started my Biscuit firing early this morning, as you know I fire using

Propane gas, and my local gas supplier told me yesterday morning

they would deliver me two 47kg bottles this afternoon.

So I began the firing as slow as I could to get my existing bottles to last until

the new ones arrived, I was hoping they would be here by 2pm

both my big bottles ran out, so I switched over to two smaller bottles

that had a bit of gas left in them by 4pm these were beginning to run out

and the pressure was dropping.

The guy finally turned up at 5pm just at the point when I was thinking of driving up to the local petrol garage to get a spare bottle.

That was to close for comfort.

While I was waiting I did make 40 tankards today

and had a good chat with Doug Fitch on the phone,

Thanks Doug ! cheered me up no end.

Marion said it was great to see me laughing so much.

A Slice of Life

I dropped a pot on this biscuit fired dish today and it broke clean in two

at least it gave me a chance to se this cross section.

I did the wording on this order

something I'm not that good at, but the only way I'm going to get

better is by doing more of it.

I sold all my egg cups so today I've made 24 more
And I've got more orders for Tankards.

A cold but busy day

I love Mondays now!!!!!

Opened The Glaze Firing this Morning !!!

This was one of the most nerve wracking Firings I had ever done for a number of reasons.

Most of the pots are for orders and Half way through Glazing I had to make up two new batches of glaze and pray I got it right.

As it turned out all was well, We had sneaked a quick look last night just to check, and what we could see through the spy hole looked good. I thought by sneaking a look I would be able to sleep better, but it had the opposite effect.

My mind was racing all night with Ideas for other things to make. This morning I woke up exhausted.

Anyway onto the pots

The Egg Cups all slipped and Glazed by Marion came out a treat.

Here is a close up
The Salt pigs were OK,placing them on the edge of the shelves near the flame worked well.

I like this jug its about 10" tall and very light.

I think this type of jug is going to be one of my trade mark pieces, I love making them.

And here is the lidded jug I let Marion Decorate glazed in the new batch of glaze.

These lidded jugs are for an order, the lady only ordered one but I will let her choose which one she wants.

This mug was a test for my new Green slip this time made with

7.5% Copper Carbonate and it seems to have worked well. this mug was also glazed while still leather hard so had no Bisc firing.

I have had a number of requests to make casserole Dishes

Above is a smaller one

This is a large one

and this chap is even Bigger.

So I'm a happy Bunny today.

Glaze Firing Today

Slip Decorated my Teapots today

Hey Check This Out !!

My Web Site is just about Finished and is up and running

www.barringtonpottery.com

or

www.paulthepotter.com

My Company car finally went back last week

This is our only mode of transport Now !!

Tea Pots, Visitors from a foreign Land & Walking

I made some more Teapot Bodies yesterday, these ones are smaller

using just under 2 lbs of clay

Spout position marked off and holes drilled

Spouts cut to shape, although in this case very badly, I ended up throwing

3 more spouts and drying them on top of the Aga.


The finished pot

Not quite, I decided to add a handle lug and trim the spout

Do you Recognise these two ladies looking around in my showroom

this afternoon ?

Susan & Jane, friends of Ron Philbeck dropped in for afternoon Tea

and naturally we talked all things pots!!

and they had us in stitches with their stories of getting lost

in country lanes and Lakes !!

After Susan & Jane had gone we took the dogs for a walk

The colours are just amazing at the moment.

You Can Relax it's all Over !!

Doug, Marky Mark & Matt

finally find time to relax with a beer after a

good Firing !!

News Report ..............

Visitors to the Devon area have been warned that

Doug Fitch is lighting his kiln today!!!

Monday Morning - Bright and Breezy

Up early on Monday morning to turn on the Kiln for a Biscuit Firing

The weather was dreadful - so much rain, at least it kept me in the workshop

and I got stuck into making some small bowls

In a brave moment I decided to have a go at making some Teapots

these are 2lbs of clay each.
and thrown off the hump spouts and lids

I will try and follow these all the way through the making process.

Got to go and tidy up the workshop a bit now as I'm due some

visitors later today.

Come Home to a Real Fire...

There have been a couple of times this week that have

made me realise just how lucky I am to be living my life as a potter

in Somerset.

Just simple things, like being able to walk the dogs for a long time on a particularly beautiful day early one morning up on the hills, while looking down on the busy traffic with ant like cars rushing to work.

Making a delivery of pots to Spillers, and coming out seeing a couple of sales reps

checking their suits before calling in to see the chap I had just seen, and me still in my potting clothes.

And standing in the workshop putting handles on mugs while listening to Radio 4.

Getting inspiration for pots from looking at my list of Blogs and seeing those wonderful jugs on Doug's blog.

I so much want to be a good potter, a potter who makes pots from the heart

a potter that inspires other potters.

and then I think

" well I've only been doing this full time this time around for 3 months don't be to hard on yourself, the longest journey starts with a few steps."

This afternoon I decorated 10 Tankards with some Italic wording for an order

once I had got my head straight about Quality I was able to free up my hand

and realy enjoy the writing on them.

I feel very Lucky

If only I could dry pots out like Hamada

I've always loved this picture.

Any potters working in England will identify with this picture at the moment

you can just feel the warmth coming from it.

Slipping in the Kitchen

It's still very damp in the air at the moment and nothing is drying

So to make sure I don't have a disaster with my freshly slipped pots collapsing

I decided to move the slipping operation into the Kitchen.

with the Aga on it made good sense

It is a jug with a lid, but it still looks like a coffee pot to me !
A row of larger mugs, this Burrow Hill design seems to go down well around here
and I love having the freedom to to them free hand.

Marion came out to the workshop one day last week, all excited about some jugs

Doug had made, which he posted on his blog with leaf pattern slip decoration, and she asked if she could have a go at it because she loved the look of Doug's Jugs.

So I gave Marion free range on this jug.

It was a first for me as well

We were pleased with the results, and it was nice having Marion around helping with the slipping.

I then did this chap and was pleased until I put it down on the table

and caught my hand on it, "Look at that Splodge" !!

The leaf idea started to take off

Before we knew it even the egg cups had leaf designs on them.