On the wheel again

Well I have back at Uni this week, and I haven't really had time to sit down and make just one form as I have to throw everything I need for my show by this next Friday ideally so then I can glaze it and work on my display for the show as it all has to be set up by May 21st, once the show is set up I can spend a day at a time throwing the things I need to sell this summer.

I was so busy trimming and cleaning on Friday which was the only day we had the camera at Uni, it was just a couple of quick shots, I will try harder this next week to get the shots I want down to a T. As the University seems to have run out of stoneware I couldn't spend my time merely making big object, I do however have two different sorts of white stoneware clay from Valentine Clays I think it is the Arctic White and Porcelain White and have 25kgs if each

Three cereal bowls, I dropped the middle one and accidently destroyed it after this shot, this week it feels like I have done pairs of everything but the tea cup and I think I have 5 of those as I had thrown 7 and two of them weren't good enough so they went straight to the reclaim.
Small fruit bowl, I did throw quite a few of these large bowls and platters, the problem is even in the big kiln there is only so much space inbetween the props on each shelf, especially as the shelves are the same size as the small gas kiln, you can just fit 4 towers if them in.
Just a few mugs, I liked the way these turned out, still need a lot more practice with handles, I think as soon as I get time I will have to throw a cylinder this size and attach as many handles as I can to it, I managed the handles on my tea cups easily as I don't feel as if I am going to drop them every time I pick them up, but with these mug I just can't get a comfortable grip on them.

Thankfully I can use the University's facilities until the degree show is finished, so I will be ordering more clay and getting to work big time, no more experimenting for a while, just getting my forms down and done.

I have been off of University for over a week now, it is hard not being able to throw while I have been off as I have been so busy with other stuff that doesn't really relate to making. I have been putting together my business studies portfolio, just need to get some info on insurances and then write the feasibility study along with all the proformas for the work. Going on a course run by the local council this Wednesday.

I am still looking at various locations for opening the business, but I am now putting it aside in my head for the moment until I have at least made all the work for the degree show.

This Summer as well as having the Degree show at Preston Uni which opens to the public June 14th, though the preview evening for that is the 11th, I will also be going to New Designers and will be there for the preview day and the 1st of July our stand is CG16 and is up on the balcony near the stair case. Also I am going to the Super Duper Itsy Bitsy Handmade Fair 2010 held by Blackpool Council in Stanley Park on July 18th, it should be fun, even if I am the only potter there I have to raise my profile locally as well as in the south.

On a separate note my wife has started blogging her blog can be found here


Here are some pictures on the way I start trying to design.

I start off just looking at various shapes on a very small scale, just a really small thumbnail not taking any time over these as it is about looking mainly at the silhouettes.

Just taking a design from the small drawings and filling an A3 sheet the shape in different proportions and looking at adding handles and spouts, my thinking is that these would make interesting tea or coffee pots.
Just starting to look at things a bit more graphically, trying to work out how I would decorate it with the cross hatching and the black boxes are something to help the shape stand out more against the paper and something we used to have to do when I was doing illustration though we used to take more time over the boxes than I have doing the whole drawing here.

These pots are as of yet unresolved even though they are one of the first designs I came up with, as I don't have the skills to really make something like these them being so wonky and asymmetrical.