Barrington Pottery - Misty Morning.

 Marion has been working away for the past few days

she left early yesterday morning, so I decided to head down to the workshop

at 7.30am

I don't know why I don't do it more often.

Just look at these pictures.

This is the roof of the Court house and Strode House from the car park.

This is the Back of my workshop

This area is due to be re developed over the next year, so I'll do some before and after shots.

This is the front of the workshop in the morning mist.

and a shot inside one of the workshop windows.

and this a part of my current display on the main table.

The Gardeners World team are here at the moment filming in the

Gardens and the Orchards and this afternoon they are going to be

firing up the old Cider Press.

I'll see if I can get any pics of someone famous.

Chutfest Barrington Court 2nd & 3rd October 2010

This weekend is Chutfest 2010 at Barrington Court

Join us on 2-3 October 2010, from 11am - 4.30pm, for Chutfest. It’s a celebration of preserves, produce and pickling.

Come and swap your jars of loveliness, or even learn first-hand how to make chutney with our resident experts.

This year’s chut-swap takes place inside the Court House at Barrington Court, where you can also buy the best quality local produce at our glorious Food Fair.

And don't forget to visit Barrington Pottery The only place you can buy my New Chutney boards, made especially for this event.

It's also the last weekend of Somerset Art weeks.

with more new pots out of the kiln on Saturday Morning.



Official Stockist of Ceramic Review Magazine

Somerset Art Weeks is going very well

I sold 22 pots on the opening day.

I have also become a stockist of Ceramic review magazine.

so come and buy your copy here.

and I'll make you a cup of coffee and you can sit on the sofa and chill out.

I do find these two weeks very tiring, because so many people want to talk to you,

I made these jugs whilst still talking to people,

but it meant I didn't get into a rhythm.

no wonder Bernard is casting a critical eye over them.

Once I found a quiet moment I made these ones which in my eyes are much better.

I've just had the second kiln wired up

so I'm doing a trial firing today with some Orton cones.

Happy Tuesday.

Somerset Art Weeks 2010 Venue 66

Tomorrow See's the start of Somerset Art weeks.

This year I am Venue 66

It's a great event, I wish they had done this sort of thing

when I was a kid.

It can be so inspirational. I love the event.

Last year I had so many visitors with such a small showroom so

this year I'm determined to make people feel welcome.

Hence the sofa.

Don't worry I haven't spent a fortune on furniture, In fact I believe it all

happened after my episode of mild peril, Tracey commented following the rescue of the chap

in the ditch on his mobility scooter, that some Karma would be coming my way.

Well it did,

Our friend's Joff & Tricky ( don't ask )

have just sold one of their houses and asked if I wanted to

come and have a look if there was anything I wanted as it had to be cleared .

So they gave me a sofa, a Mirror, a rug, two CD racks and a stereo system.

Perfect timing to create the area I wanted to.

You may notice the picture frame in front of the telly

Here is a close up and what it's all about.

It's my favorite extract from the Book

 Bernard Leach

A Potters Book

first published by faber and faber in 1940.

So as you can see there is a method to my madness.

more pics as the week progresses.

Sneak Preview

Somerset Art Weeks starts on

Saturday 18th September - 3rd October.

It's Open studios this Year

and Marion came around on Monday Evening and set the

 showroom up for me.

Here is a sneak preview.

It's not quite finished yet, I'm sorting a few things out today.

But it's a bit of a radical change.

I also wanted to draw your attention to an excellent web site

www.cidermugs.co.uk

This chap has set up a new web site for all who love cider mugs

I've had an order for 20 back in May

and they have now ordered another 6.

The prices are very reasonable and I would urge you

to pass the web site on to other people.

Have a look.

And The Winner Is ........

Marion Came in the workshop today after she had

finished work.

I had 28 names in the hat and asked Marion to Pick one out.

Well done Yana Out East.

So well done Jane

If you send me your address I will post the jug off to you

next week.

Email : paulthepotter@btinternet.com

Thank You to all who took part and for all of your very kind comments.

Thanks

Paul

Competition Eve.

My Hops arrived from Kent on Tuesday

and I put them up straight away as suggested in the box.

I love having them in the showroom, they add a certain something.

Hops I think!

The draw for the Competition is going to be held Tomorrow night

so if you want to be in the draw you still have time to leave a comment

on the 400th Post.

So far there are 22 names to go in the hat

so you have a 1 in 22 chance of winning at the moment.

I'm going to use the summer hat for the draw.

Yesterday afternoon

I took a bit of time out to go and visit Doug Fitch.

Doug has been a great help to me since we found each other via a Blog

about Fremmington clay.

Alex mcerlain was there helping with the Kiln firing, and it was

nice to meet him for the first time.

I love Doug's work

such rich colours and beautiful full bellied shapes.

Doug's showroom is looking good.

This is the best one of these Cider jars I have ever seen, Ever.

This should be snapped up by a Museum

or a collector as a fine example of the art.

and on the way home a Rainbow.

An Episode of Mild Peril

Some times you have to think hard about putting together a blog post

and some times they just write themselves.

Today's episode wrote it's self.

At lunch time today I decided to go for a walk with cadbury

not something I normally do at lunch.

But today for some reason it was meant to be.

As we walked down the back lane, a chap on a mobility scooter

zoomed up behind us, I've never seen one of these machines go so fast.

Cadbury and I went through the gate at the side of the cattle grid

and the guy on the scooter went around the corner, which was Odd

because that would just take him further away from the Court.

10 Minuets later I was stood outside the workshop saying that I hadn't seen him again

and that I was getting slightly worried about him.

So I jumped in the Pajero and shot off down the lane to look for him.

I found him at the bottom of a 5ft ditch up to his ankles in water

and still sat in the mobility scooter.

my first words to him were

" How the hell did you get in there"?

He was to far down for me to pull him out, so I shot back to the Court

called 999 and got a fire crew and an ambulance out ,

to hoist him out of the ditch.

It was raining heavy by this time and the ditch was filling up with water.

The guy was about 70 -75 and very frail.

Luckily he seemed OK and this is Mathew driving the scooter back

to the reception area for a check over.

My youngest Daughter Sarah, has some DVD's of

sponge bob square pants

and on the back it has a warning

" contains scenes of Mild Peril"

This was one of those scenes, and if I hadn't gone looking for him

he would have been there for hours.

So that's my good deed for the day done.

400th Post = Competetion Time

Ok This is My 400th Post on the Blog.

I feel it should be marked in some way.

So I've decided to give this jug away to one person.

To enter all you have to do is leave a comment on this post.

I will then write all the names on a piece of paper and put them in a hat

and ask Marion to pull one piece of paper out of the hat.

who ever gets pulled out gets the jug.

It's a small half pint jug.

with white slip trailing over a black slip.

It has it's imperfections, but don't we all !

It has two marks on it,

one is where I caught it with my fingers when I knocked it off the shelf

when I went to pick it up to slip it.

and the indent you can see above is where I caught against the shelf below

and thus was able to save it.

To me this type of pot is everything a slipware pot should be.

So I hope you will enter into the spirit of things and leave a comment.

Especially all of you who read the blog but never leave a comment.

I'll do the draw on Friday 10th September.

Last year this blog had 22,000 visitors

So I hope I've been helpful to some people.

I know I have loved the feed back and help you have all given me.

Just out of interest while I've been putting this blog together this morning

I've had a visit from a Potter from Dubai, and a lady in the village came to take a picture of

caddie and me to take to Albania.

Just another day at Barrington Pottery.

And then there were two.

Yes you are seeing Double it's an eBay bargain.