I've Hit a Brick Wall

What happens when you hit

the proverbial brick wall.

And how do you get out from under it?

So far this year I've been totally focused on the new workshop and making enough stock to fill the shelves, sales have been going well and I've been able to keep up with

all the bills and then suddenly

I've had a week of almost no sales at all.

I know the only way out of it is to pot my way out,

but that is difficult to do when your creative spirit has got up

and walked off into the sunset.

I took a day off yesterday to try and clear my mind and get away from it all

but it had no effect at all.

I want to take my business to the next level

but I don't know what that level is yet?

Production Sunday !

Sunday is always a strange day regarding sales.

You can never tell from one week to the next.

This weekend I sold absolutely nothing.

Tell a Lie, I just sold a jug while I'm writing this.

But luckily my mind was in the right place and I just cracked on with making

small bowls.

Today my target was 50

There are 48 here plus another four

on one of my other shelves.

For a long time now I've been thinking about writing a list of

Five reasons to buy hand made craft from Source.

But I keep coming up with about 20 reasons.

and I want a nice short to the point list.

So I'm going to tackle this task this evening with a beer in hand,

any ideas would be gratefully received.

My language has on occasion been known to get a bit colourful to say the least,

when I've had a few beers.

So I think I should start the list before I open the beer,

otherwise I think my list would scare people away.

I think a few beers in the back garden

this evening should make a nice end to the day.

Normal Service is Resumed !

Back to what I should be doing.

Making pots.

This chap came out of the glaze firing this morning

and has already been delivered to the customer.
Wednesday gave me a chance to make a few
minor adjustments to the showroom.

I've purchased a couple of very nice old aprons for the workshop

and am using them in the showroom to give it a homely feel.

The National trust came and put some insulation in this old doorway
So I've painted it up to add a small splash of colour.

I worked all day Wednesday slipping jugs and putting handles on serving dishes.

It feels good to be back in the groove.

I'm working towards my next show

Yesterday's Farming

August 21st & 22nd at Dillington House.

My main priority now is making stock.

"I will not do Raku"

"I will not do Raku"

Raku Two - better results this time

The whole point of evening classes is to gain further incite

into a subject that is of interest to you.

At the same time it should also be fun and something you look

forward too each week.

And when it's over you might have been bitten by the bug

and want to do more and feel sad that it's all over.

"I feel all of those things and I'm only the Teacher"

we had a second go at Raku last night, the previous week Rebbecca was

unable to attend the class which would have been the last one.

So instead of her missing out I suggested the rest of us went up the pub for the evening.

which we did.

So this week we tackled the dustbin kiln once more.

I used a smaller burner and raised the shelf.

and I made up some new glazes from recipes sent to me

by Tracey Broome - Thanks Tracey, much appreciated.

Look at the results we got.

Fantastic colours.
My main problem now is remaining focused on what I should be making
and not spending lots of time experimenting.
I think I've been bitten by the Raku Bug.

Post with No Picture

Since I have been here at Barrington Court

I must say that I have been blessed by the amount of very nice customers

That have bought my pots.

Some of which are very special indeed, with their knowledge of pottery

and appreciation of hand made Ceramics, they not only buy pots

which enables me to put food on the table,

" I still haven't made any plates".

But they make you feel that the life you are living is privileged

and makes a real contribution to the community in which we live.

On the other hand we have to learn to take the good with the bad.

Customers fit into a number of Categories.

I've had the lady who came in and rearranged my display

stood back and then said

"There that feels better".

For who ?

I'm not quite sure.

and yesterday I recognised a guy that came in the workshop last year

One of which, I am sure we all come across is

" The Nutter"

last year he wasted almost an hour, mainly because I was unaware of just how barking mad some people can be.

Well not this year matey.

As soon as I clocked him walking in the door I headed straight for the Pug Mill.

The noisiest machine in the workshop and the furthest away from the door.

My clay bin was fully stocked, but that wasn't going to deter me

from finding a way to ignore this guy until he went away.

It worked !

He only stood around for 10 minutes

unable to make eye contact and conversation he left

obviously disillusioned that I had spoilt his party.

but at the end I had an extra 4 bags of clay pugged.

Result!

Paul the Potter 1 Nutter 0

Working out cost of making pots.

This jug came out of the kiln

It has no lip, but in the Michael Cardew book a Portrait

by Garth Clark

There is one of a similar design without a lip

and that is called a jug.

It's black slip on white slip with a honey glaze.

I need to iron my black material as a background to get a better shot.

but otherwise it's a pot I'm very pleased with.

I've had to work out my material costs for making pots.

I've come up with a simple guide.

Luckily I have always kept a record of how many pots come from each Glaze firing

so I've been able to work out an average from each firing.

which for me works out at 36.

so the cost of two firings divided by 36 gives me a firing cost per pot.

Based upon how many are made from One Tonne of clay I have worked out an average of 750 pots

I can work out how much it costs to fire each pot as an average

add this to the cost of clay per tonne divided by 750

gives me a clay cost per pot.

I've also been able to work out how much glaze material I use

to glaze the 750 pots so the cost of this divided by 750

gives me a glaze cost per pot

Does this make sense so far, I'm beginning to loose myself in all this.

average pots made per tonne of clay = 750

average clay cost per pot

average glaze cost per pot

average firing cost per pot

add to these how long it takes me to work through a tonne of clay

so lets say 4 months.

so add 4 months rent.

Then it all falls down if you try to work out the man hours used to make these 750 pots

based on 48 hours per week at 18 weeks

that comes to 864 hours

so what rate do you charge your own time at ?

It doesn't quite work like that does it.

But for the tax man purposes the figures in red above are what they want to know.

So I hope this helps.

Marions Big Pot

Marion's Big pot finally came out of the kiln Yesterday.

I'm really pleased with it,

It was really great to see her eyes light up as we opened the lid of the kiln

and she wants to make more

which is a sure sign that she is pleased too.

This is before it was slipped.
and this was Marion earlier getting very engrossed in the making process.

I love having Marion in the workshop

Once I get passed the distraction of having someone to chat to in the evenings

and actually get on with some work, we make a great team.

Marion is just a fabulous woman and I think the world of her.

If it wasn't for all your help and support I would not be living the

unbelievable life I am now, as a Potter and Lover.

So Happy Birthday for Wednesday

I Love you Very Much .

Summer Exhibition Well Worth a Visit.

Last night we attended the Private View

of the Somerset Guild of Craftsmen Summer Exhibition,

along with our friends and neighbours from the village.

Followed by a meal out in a local pub.

It was great that our friends all wanted to come along to see my pots

on display and to view the other work in the Exhibition.

Here is the show poster, if your in the area it's worth a visit.

Here is a jug that is work in progress.
And Marion's Big pot is cooling down in the kiln at the moment
so some pics of that On the next post.

Thanks to Tracey and Ang for the feedback and emailed info on the Raku Firing.

it confirmed my thoughts and gave me some valuable information

for the next attempt and some excellent recipes.

Hopefully better results next time.

Day Two and a Half

Tuesday has been a manic day, with too much to cram in
First thing this morning we made up a new batch of glaze.
I phoned the Somerton Gallery to ask when they needed my pots by.
and they said Wednesday morning. I explained that I was just glazing them and the soonest we could get them to the gallery was Thursday morning. so Thursday morning it is.

We put up the marquee set up the kiln, found a stockist that had some Propane Gas

then found I hadn't got any matches.

The first four pots in the Raku kiln.

and the burner is lit.

I've already come to the conclusion the hole for the burner isn't big enough.

within the hour it had heated up nicely.

The first pots were put in the sawdust.

Then taken out and dipped in a bucket of water.

This is me in action. My first ever Raku firing.

Pots before the clean up.

The evening class team inspect their pots.

These were the results.

This was a Turquoise glaze ???...

The party went on late into the night.

and this was the fall out this morning.

everything just got pushed in the showroom door at 11.45pm

This was the kiln this morning.

and this was the bucket we washed the pots in !.

all in all we had some good fun. and learnt an awful lot in the process. any feed back would be welcome.

Work Experience placement.Day 1

My work experience lad Courtney Davey

Turned up today for his first day at Barrington Pottery.

after an initial introduction to the workshop

we were off down to Puckington to dig some clay.
The pile is slowly going down.

Then back to the workshop to break it down ,

wash it and sieve it.

Courtney dried it out on a plaster batt, and mixed it 50/50

with the standard clay.

and by the end of the day he had 10KG made up and ready to go.

More interesting work tomorrow with the Raku firing

in the evening.

Making My Dustbin Raku Kiln.

OK here are all the elements needed to build the kiln.

I had some 3mm ceramic paper left over from building

my large gas kiln 2 years ago.

so I decided to line the dustbin with this first as an extra insulation layer.

and tied it in place with these ceramic buttons I made. and tied it with nichrome wire.

To cut out a base I sat the bin on the Ceramic fibre and pushed it down to make a circle of the perfect size. I then cut it out using a sharp knife.

a perfect fit.

I tied the top with the wire.

Then I cut out a hole for the gas burner.

This is the Ceramic Fibre.

Caution needs to be taken when handling this stuff.

I got some disposable plastic gloves from the local petrol station.

and put on a respiratory mask and goggles.

I had the idea, that if i wrapped the fibre around the bin and then cut it

it would fit.

It doesn't work.

It gave me enough for the inside and the lid.

I cut out a hole in the lid.

unfortunately not as square as i would have liked.

I fixed the fibre to the lid with the buttons.

and fixed the fibre in the bin with more buttons.

put some fire bricks in the base and a small 12" round kiln shelf.

I spent a couple of hours watching raku videos on You Tube yesterday morning

to give me a better understanding of the process.

But what worried me , was that most of the video's were titled

"Naked Raku"

I can tell you I paused for quite a while before clicking on the video.

you never quite know what's going to come up

with a title like that.

Luckily they all referred to the Naked flame.

This is the finished Kiln.

It took me about 2 hours to put all this together.