Of big pots, road trips and memberships

It has been a busy week or so for me between visits to York, Derby, Uppingham and UCLAN.  I already wrote about my visit to York previously.  I went to Derby to try a discus pottery wheel unfortunately I haven't sold the wheel I don't want any more otherwise I would have bought the wheel then and there, for such a small light wheel they are amazingly powerful and are perfect when I attend other places, it means I don't have to lug around  the Shimpo unless we are taking more than one.

We went to Uppingham to see the Nic Collins show that was recommended by Andrew Douglas, it really was amazing, the pots look so much better in the flesh and feel so smooth despite all the lumps and bumps.  It was something very different to the highly polished work you see at ceramic fairs, and is just something that isn't possible as a student at UCLAN.  I would have bought  a piece of Nic's work but I just didn't quite have enough money for the piece I wanted.

The Goldmark Gallery was amazing, especially with all the work in the basement, it was like a treasure trove, and of course there were many pots that caught my eye but there was one I especially liked even in the half light, so I bought it after trying to leave half a dozen times without it.

I went to UCLAN again because the technician Geoff is doing me yet another favour, they have been so good to me since I left.

Yesterday I also mixed up a fresh bucket of glaze ready to get on top again once I get some bisque firing done this next week.  I have storage jars and cookie jars covering the studio, so then are going to be fired up glazed and then stored as there isn't much room for them to be on display.

This is the 25 inch bottle vase from last week, it has now been moved so then it can be fired once it is dry enough.  My kilns aren't big enough for these big pots, so I am borrowing kiln space for these but I would like to construct some sort of kiln in the back garden to at least bisque them.  I don't have much money, and I was wondering if it is possible to biscuit them in a home-made raku kiln.

This pot I threw on Monday while waiting for a friend to turn up, I got a call saying he wasn't coming till after six, so I closed it up as quickly as I could, I walked home to fill a kiln and I fired it as soon as it was full.

These are Goldmark Gallery ceramics catalogues, I recommend them to anyone who is studying right now, they aren't a bad price and are full of amazing images, especially the Nic Collins one it is totally amazing.  After seeing the catalogues and the Goldmark's website my website tech guy looked at me and said we need to rebuild the website for the pottery and I totally agree we need something a little more stylish, that when galleries look at they are impressed.

This is the Mike Dodd pot that I bought, it is a Basalt Black glaze, I love how the glaze breaks apart across the details, I also love the speckles across the pot but I didn't see them for the first time until this morning when I took this shot as I had always seen it in the half light.  It is now sat on my bookcase until I find a better place.

I joined the CPA a few weeks ago and my membership came through the other day and is sat on my desk now.

Yesterday after being so busy I took the pottery back to the primary school I visited.  After the school I played on the village green with my little boy and his cousin.  There were also ducklings which the boys wanted to chase and feed.  This one duck had all those ducklings plus another three that were just out of shot.

Today I painted our kitchen ready for some shelving to go up to store pottery on while waiting to be fired.  My granddad is coming to help me put up some that was previously in my sisters house, which means the kitchen table should be freed up from being my major storage area.

I also want to work on getting into some galleries, rather than trying to do all the sales myself.  I just need to work out where I am going to get some images printed to create a gallery pack and rebuild the website to something a little more stylish.

The 30cm barrier or how I can't break it

I suppose like most potters you eventually want to make something a little bigger, I know I do and it has been my goal for weeks and every now and again I try to throw something big.  The biggest I can throw is about 30cm and I can't manage any higher, no matter how many times I pull up once I get to that hight I can't break that size and then of course when you shape something it gets even smaller as you give it belly it loses a few centimetres.

Throwing big is something I never really did at university but it is something I want to get better at, I want to make anything I set my mind to.  I know to get really big I need to throw in 2 or 3 parts, but I want to see what the biggest I can personally do with one lump of clay.

This was the first pot I threw today, the ball of clay was about 2.6kilos and the final height is under 10inch.  the clay was hard and I fought with it to centre it and then once I did so I made them same mistakes I always do but as I finished it I had the idea of starting a little smaller and trying to see if that would work better for me, slow things down and try and relax into it.

This is the result of relaxing the pot just behind this one is the one from the previous image, this is clearly bigger and was about 1.7kg so almost a kilo smaller, not sure I like the top of the pot but regardless I learnt a lot from this and gained some insights in pulling up the clay more efficiently and actually started with the clay in a much flatter disk.

After the success of 1.7kg I moved onto a 2.2kg lump of clay.  With the final pull I used a rib and it gave me a much nicer final surface than just ribbing it off after I had finished.

Once again 2.2kg mainly due to it being the last piece of clay in the bag. I worked with the shape a little more to make it feel just that bit narrower

This is the table I tend to sit at to draw and read, it faces the door so I can also look up and see the world passing me by.  I have been reading the Craft of the Potter again, this is the first book that I read whilst at university that helped me understand the actual formulation of a glaze rather than all the other books I read. 

These two things are something I am working on to be a bit more whimsical than the rest of my work and are something that I can use to help fill my kiln when I need a few more tall things.

Youtube Channel

We have made a Youtube channel and have put some videos up.   I get really nervous being recorded and often don't throw at my best, isn't it always the way.  The thing I get most nervous about is hearing my own voice back on a recording and I can't actually listen without getting queezy.