Monday 10 October 2011

Design Process in progress

I love working on my own in my workshop
the space is very special to me.
I think that having waited 22 years for my own workshop
now that I have it I don't want to share it.
But more recently Marion has been coming down at the weekends
and making a few things and watching and learning.
I always felt like a very lonely potter,
who just wanted to close the door
 and get on with making what I want to make in my own way.
But this weekend has changed all that.
We had been discussing a design for a large plate or platter
and I weighed up 6lbs of clay and threw a 13" wide ( bowl ).
This was not what we had talked about. 
So I weighed up 5lbs of clay and made this.
This wasn't what we had talked about either!

So I weighed up 6lbs again and made this,
no different to the first one. 
so I tried again, getting closer but the base was too small.
In the end I weighed up 6.5lbs of clay
and made this 15" wide platter with plenty of meat at the bottom
for turning. 
it was great to have someone to work with and to discuss what I was making
or to put it another way "to point out the error of my ways."
But we got there in the end.

we had unloaded the kiln earlier and we both liked this large bowl
in the Old English White glaze. 
 and this small pancheon in the Buckley style
surprised me, it's been sat on the shelf for months
and I had not felt inspired to glaze it.
But when it came out I found myself sitting down watching
my Svend Bayer DVD in the showroom whilst hugging this pot.
Marion went home earlier to prep for the roast dinner last night
and it was great to see this Pancheon of potatoes
sat on the kitchen table when I got home. 
what nicer site could a potter wish to see.

5 comments:

Dennis Allen said...

Mighty nice indeed.

gz said...

So many of us design on the wheel, yet selection for galleries and associations can depend on paperwork!

Anonymous said...

New series tonight on BBC4 about pottery from the lieks of Thomas Toft to Bernard Leach - if you miss it watch it on the iplayer

Hollis Engley said...

I do like being alone in the studio, but I can see how another eye would help to refine an idea. Once you give up your own "ownership" of the way you've made something new and can hear constructive criticism from someone else. And you did get great results with that process, Paul.

Hannah said...

Lovely pancheons Paul.

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