New pots

Fresh from the kiln this morning is this Large lidded jar.

It's the first pot I have ever been asked to make

for storing Parrot seed in.

It's glazed on the inside but unglazed on the outside

It's just the white slip.

I have told them it will show all the marks on the outside,

but that's what the customer wanted.

This is a large bread crock that will have a wooden lid when Fired.

I spotted these cars at the court the other day.

Classic

Made at a time when cars were cars.

rather than the jelly moulds they make these days.

Pottery Workshop Quick look back in Time.

Whilst looking for a picture of a particular pot I stumbled across this shot

taken last year. But the workshop looked like this until January 2010.

Now look at it.
I still can't quite believe the difference in such a short space of time.
I'm loving working in the new space, and especially now that it's started to warm up a bit.

I found out last week that I'm going to have some pots on display
at the Contemporary Craft Fair at Bovey Tracey in June
as part of the West Country Potters Association stand,
and I just found out that Clive Bowen will be there Demonstrating in the same Marque
So the pots I have on show had better be the best pots I've ever made
if Clive is going to be seeing them.
I'm going to start making them tomorrow.

All sorts going on at the moment so busy it's making my head spin,
which includes making a jar to keep parrot seed in !
More info later in the week.

Local Somerset Clay

My previous trials on my locally dug clay, proved that on it's own it would not hold water once glazed and fired. So I have been mixing it 50/50 with the clay I buy from Stoke.

In these pics I have 7lbs of Stoke clay and 3lbs of Local clay. the local one being the yellow colour.

Interesting to see how the wedging process works as I mix them together.

Don't tell me

"there is a face in that"

I don't want to Know!

Any way carrying on

A few minuets later.



and the final result of a 70/30 mix.
The Local clay is much softer than the bag clay which I felt would be great for making a bigger pot.



So here is 10lbs on the wheel.

It was fantastic to throw with, just perfect for a larger pot and it made it so easy.

This Pancheon below is 15" wide.
and the three flower pots you can see on the new shelf system are a 50/50 blend and thrown very quickly as the old guys would have done in the past.

I'm on top of my orders now and it was good to have a little time to play and experiment with the local clay.

Icelandic Sunset and New Pot Rack

OK it's not Iceland,

But the Volcanic ash does seem to be giving us nice sunsets.

This was just outside the workshop last night.
When we went to the Leach Pottery in St Ives last summer,
I saw this racking system that I wanted to incorporate into my new workshop.

So I moved a few things around and made room for this.

I'm going to be trying it out later today.

I'm hoping it will make me more efficient in my work.

"Don't worry" !

Even I'm laughing at that thought.

Spring is in the Air - If Nothing Else is...

A beautiful spring day today, with a clear blue sky,

It's great to be able to see it as it was intended,

and not Cris crossed with vapour trails from jet planes.

The Volcanic eruption in Iceland is still effecting the British air space

and so all flights are still grounded.

I took a walk up on the hill last night after I had finished in the workshop.
I love it up here, you can see for miles, and it gives you time to think.
Although my first thought was
" now would be a great time to film a costume drama without
the jet plane vapour trails in the sky".

These little chaps seem to be enjoying the weather.

And to make the day even better Malcolm Shepherd came over today
and delivered some of his fantastic metal work for the showroom.

His work fits in so well with mine.

I just love these hooks.

a selection of other pieces.

It makes the showroom feel more complete and I have had a great reaction

to the work in the first afternoon.

Feeling Much Better.

I've taken it easy for the past two days

and I feel much , much better.

all systems Go.

Ground to a halt !

I was rather hoping to have done a post direct from the new workshop last night.

Telling you of my new Phone number for the workshop.

The man from BT came and installed the broadband line for me.

but then found there were no spare lines available.

So they have gone away and I will have to wait until some more lines are installed onto the Barrington Court Estate.

Today the Court is closed to visitors.

I am pleased because I seem to have ground to a Halt today.

I think everything seems to have caught up with me and all I want to do is sleep.

This is a set of bowls in the showroom.

I have been in the workshop for a few hours this afternoon as a few jugs and lids needed to be slipped.
But I didn't stay long and now I'm adding more pots to my Etsy site.

I think I'll plonk myself in front of the telly for a few hours.

New Pots & Kiln Opening

I took an order yesterday to make a large old fashioned bread crock

with a wooden lid.

I made this using 15lbs of clay.

The largest amount I have ever used in one go.

This morning I opened the glaze firing with mixed results.
I like this lipped Pancheon.

and this is one of a set of six.

But this was a very poor effort

black slip painted over green slip with sgraffito decoration.

This was a bit better but still very weak in it's final outcome.

Something to work on I guess.

Back to the workshop now, Loads to make today.

Pottery in the Sunshine

The weather here has been glorious over the past few days.

it was so warm outside I have been able to dry pots in the sun.

with the workshop being cold and damp this has been of great help and has saved me at least 3 days waiting for pots to dry.

These pots were drying on Thursday and are now in the kiln following glazing.

I did bisc fire them on Thursday night.

so more new pots out of the kiln then. with a few experimental ones as well.

The Daffodils are out in full bloom and are looking great in the sunshine.


Walking caddy in the morning and you can actually feel the heat from the sun,
It's been such a long winter, it's nice to feel it's coming to an end.

I have orders for 32 pots at the moment, so things are going well.

This pot is now a jug and I've already got someone who wants to buy it

having watched me throw it on the wheel on Friday.

More pics of new pots on Monday.

Pottery Kiln - unloaded

The second Glaze firing in the new workshop.

This is the second shelf.

and this is the whole load on the table.
More Blue as you can see, but it does keep selling
so this time I've made a few more items in blue to test the market.

I finally got these extra shelves up and stocked.

These three store jars were supposed to have wording sgraffito'd in

but I forgot to do it before I biscuit fired them, well actually I did remember but by that time they were at the bottom of the kiln and I had just finished stacking the top shelf.

so maybe next time.

These are the jugs I showed earlier when they had just been slipped.

and this is one of my favorites, I love the simplicity

of the white slip on black.

Pottery Road

Driving along today and came across the road sign.

So I did what any self respecting Blogger would do and,

Took the Photo for the blog.

More new pots out of the kiln in the morning. and some new additions to etsy to come.

Easter Weekend at Barrington Pottery

Easter weekend at Barrington Court

is the first major family weekend of the season.

The weather has been very poor on the Friday and Saturday,

But today was sunny and dry.

The wind was cold, but the showroom was nice and warm.
Yesterday was a good working day
and I managed to make 36 coffee cups and 20 cereal bowls.

I found this photo frame this morning and set about finding some pictures to fill it.

I raided my old copies of Ceramic Review and put this set together

as Inspiration in my workshop.

Michael Cardew and Clive Bowen.

Two of the most inspirational men for me.