Dunster Castle Candlelight 2nd & 3rd December 2011

I had a call last week from the shop Manager at Dunster Castle

a National Trust Property.

Asking me if I would like to attend

The Candlelight event at Dunster Castle.

Dunster is a great place

a real medieval Village with a Castle.

So I decided to go and have a look last week

to check out the space. 

These are the Castle stables and I will have a stall in here.

what a great place to have a stall. 

I'm going to have to come up with something special for this space.

I think My Pancheons will fit in well with the space.

I'm going to be in with the food section, being close to a Butcher

with quality burgers is fine with me.

The annual event attracts around 5,000 people

and starts around 4pm until 9.30pm

on both the Friday & Saturday Night.

This is the old Nunnery in the village. 

and this is the view from the car park.

I'm really excited about doing this show.

I've also put the link on in the Events page

of the new Web Site.

Come on Down!

New Barrington Pottery web site

The Time has come to move the web site to another level

We have been working on this for 3 months now.

It's a lot of extra work but it's been keeping me

out of the pub in the evenings, which is no bad thing.

We still have lots of extra stuff to add but at some point you

just have to bite the bullet and launch it.

It has a number of new features which we hope people will like

You can now buy on line from our online shop.

You can buy a gift certificate

you can even email a gift voucher to a friend.

You can log in and create an account for yourself

it's quick and easy and you don't even have to buy anything.

You can sign up for the newsletter

and account holders will be sent special offers from time to time.
You can even add pots to a wish list,
great for dropping hints to a loved one.

we would love to know what you think.

Here is a link to the site.

Go on log in.

http://www.barringtonpottery.com

Making, Making, Making.

Things are happening here at Barrington Pottery

The only way I am going to keep up

Is just to keep making.

as the kiln cools down

I am drying Pancheons on the lid. 

This is the top shelf.

and under the top shelf this shows how versatile these

top loading kilns can be. 

I finally plucked up the courage to slip this very large Pancheon

The biggest one I've ever made.

and today it's been sat drying on the wheel next to me

and it's felt like having a friend sat there. I was thinking that that's a weird

thing to say. But I remembered that some of Doug's big pots

look like people stood in the workshop. 

I've made 100 ramekins in the last two days. 

and I've been looking at a way to fit more pancheons in the kiln

this is a trial

I have one on the floor of the kiln along with 5 jugs

and four Ramekins.

and one under the lipped bowls,

The trial bit is glaze firing these two on their sides. 

and it seems to have worked.

I'm going to be making some pan rings for the new year. 

and I've just started  to decorate the showroom

for the Christmas visitors.

Big News for 2012 - Antony Gormley installation at Barrington Court

In April 2012

Barrington Court will be host to an

Antony Gormley Installation called

 "Field for the British Isles".

It's an installation of thousands of clay people 

These are images of the installation from Antony's web site.

I hope that's alright!

I've put the link at the end. 

"It's" or should I say "they", are going to occupy the floor

in three rooms at Barrington Court. 

It's all part of Barrington Court finding a niche for it's self now that it's empty.

I can't wait to see it.

It's going to bring a real buzz to the court next year

and to accommodate the extra 15,000 extra visitors they think it will attract

Barrington Court will be open 7 days a week from March 2012. 

2012 is looking like it's going to be a very busy year

for us at Barrington Pottery.

I'm really excited about this!

And with a bit of luck I might get to meet

Antony Gormley

 and have a cup of tea with him

in my workshop.

Here is the link

enjoy.

http://www.antonygormley.com/show/item-view/id/2260#p0

Large Bowls at Barrington Pottery

I was going to start this blog with a picture of the horrific accident

on the M5 jnc 25 in Somerset on Friday night

 in which 7 people died.

But looking at the pictures it somehow didn't feel right.

We count ourselves lucky as we got on the M5

at that junction at about 6.30pm that night and the accident

happened around 8.30pm.

Our thoughts are with all those affected.

OK now on with the blog.

I don't do much slip trailing and when I do it's usually white on black

this bowl came out a treat a few weeks ago

 and I've just realised I hadn't put it on the blog.

This was me in the workshop around 5.30 on Friday night

I have a commission to make a 20" bowl for the local church font.

My first attempt last week was using 14lbs of clay and was only 16"wide

so I've had another go with 16lbs of clay.

it still wasn't big enough. so this is 20lbs of clay

note to self "when adding water to the rim remember the rim is over hanging

the tray and you just cover yourself in water"!

 This is just about big enough and it survived the night.

This is one of the earlier attempts

having just been turned on my small wheel. 

and here are some jugs for an order. 

The court is closed in the week so now so it's a great time to crack on with some work.

My workshop is open all through the week except for Wednesday.

WPA Demonstration Day.

On Saturday 29th October 2011 we did a demonstration day to 12 people from the

Westcountry Potters Association.

And silly me, I got so involved in the day

I forgot to take any pictures.

Plenty of the visitors took a shot, luckily off me rather than at me.

so as soon as I get some of those sent to me I'll put them up.

It was the first time I had done a formal

Demonstration day and especially to other potters.

We had some fun and the day went very quickly from my part.

Marion provided us with copious amounts of tea & cake

she said afterwards it was the only way she could keep people awake!

I thoroughly enjoyed the day and the response I have had back

from those who attended has all been very positive.

Thank you for a great day.