Adam Field's Workshop

Yesterday I attended a workshop organised by Hannah McAndrew at the Solway Ceramics Centre near Carlisle.  I haven't been to the Solway Ceramics centre before but it was really interesting and the facilities were amazing with three wood fired kilns.

The morning was taken up with Adam Field talking about his work before, during, and after Korea.  His videos of both himself and Korean Potters throwing Onggi on his website are well worth the watch.

In the afternoon he demonstrated the work he does with porcelain, he explained throwing from a technical perspective and how it works.  His explanation of how throwing works is one of the best for explaining how throwing works.  He took us through throwing his cups, and a storage jar, talking about his designs.

Adam Field Carving a Cup

Working with fifths he divided his cup before carving in the pattern, which is based on triangles forming the structure.

Adam Field's Carved Cup

"no surface is left unconsidered" - Adam Field

Adam Field's work that he made with Doug Fitch

It was a really good day but I have lots of ideas so have been recording them in a sketchbook, that I just started specifically with ideas of different project and tools I want to make etc.

Lots to do this week I have more prototyping to do and hopefully earthenware sgraffito to do too.

Throwing Large Platters

Today I uploaded some pictures to Twitter as I threw some large platters.  I was feeling out of practice, I tried to throw the first one with throwing the whole lump at once.  I noticed I just don't have the strength after not throwing bigger pots over the winter, so to get round it I flattened the clay by pounding it with my fists as it slowly rotates, then as it forms a disc slap it and then use a rib to smooth it off.

I trimmed the base so then it was a completely round disc.  I coiled the sides on and then threw them up, trimmed the wonky top and then used a large piece of chamois leather to give it a nice strong edge.  I trimmed round the base to remove the excess then wired it off.

Rough Disc Formed

disc scratched and coil prepared.

We ended up with a spring shower just as I needed to roll out the slab so did it very roughly in the air and then just a quick roll on my paving slab so it didn't pick up too much water.

Sides thrown on and swirl added across the base.

I made two in total and both are now drying, I must find the rest of my amazing Doug Fitch bats for when I finally get shelves sorted.

Inspiration and Development Updates.

This week has been a week that I have found a little inspiration, even more so today than any other day my determination is fired and I want to keep going, only thing is I have a Sunday off and then Monday is my little boy's 3rd birthday so I am taking the day off too, whether I will still have this fire then is another matter! I shall just have to doodle what I want to make.

This weeks blog is also a little photo heavy, I do apologise if your internet speed is slow.

These are the slab pieces I showed in an earlier blog entry, as you can see they have been alter, slipped and in parts burnished.  I want to try a little more development with these see if with can make something that is a bit more special.

The taller of these storage jars is 9 inches high, I keep thinking about glaze for these even though they are still very wet and I don't know how long it will be before  they are dry enough to fire it depends on the weather, hopefully it will pick up as it has been very damp and cold again.  The bigger work doesn't like this time of the year, it is a very slow process.  I have thrown these storage jars like this as an alternative to throwing too many vases. as a few people whp have come in have said that they have enough vases but they like the idea of a storage jar.

The lids have feet on them so they sit inside the jar rather than having altered the rim of the pot itself.  I wanted the lids to look a bit like Richard Batterham's but they don't have that same flatness as they meet the rim.

My wife earmarked this page in Phil Roger's Throwing Book ages ago.  These particular jugs were by Svend Bayer.  I didn't like the look of them at first so I had been avoiding marking them.  This week I decided I couldn't put it off any longer so I drew a quick sketch which I put on my wheel's back board got 1.6kilos of clay and went to work.

This is my Svend Bayer inspired jug, I liked it so much that I actually smashed up two green jugs that were actually dry enough to fire but had never really liked them so they have already broken down in the the reclaim buckets.  I had seen a little of Svend Bayer in magazines and had been told to look at them for my own work but didn't like them, not until this week especially today.
I have also been looking at the work of Jim Malone after reading an article about him in Ceramic Review which all lead me to look at the Modern Pots Website which is part of the Goldmark Gallery.  I had a look at going on the traint o see some of the work in person but it is a 4 hour train journey, you can get to London in less if you are willing to pay through the nose, not that the train would be cheap with an estimated cost of £55 on the train or £60 for a friends petrol.

I threw 4 smaller mugs with varying success during yesterday, the tallest one was a demo for my 6 year old cousin and 3year old nephew, as I was pulling the spout for it my nephew jumped on the shimpo's pedal sending it spinning and scared me half to death.

These are the various vase forms I have thrown after they have been trimmed and chattered which I seem to do more and more but I am trying to make very deliberate decisions about these details now.

Someone when I was in my first second year at University said that throwing small was harder than throwing big, and in someways it is to be that fine and delicate and produce something that is a miniature version of what I have been working on.  I made them because I was cold at 3pm and if I throw I get warm quick, or maybe I just forget that I am cold.  I found a couple of bits of scrap clay in a few different bags and decided to throw the pieces I had.

This is the second tallest of the miniature pots next to a full size one that is just under 30cm.

I think I am going to try and work on storage jars, but I need to produce some more domestic ware as I have been avoiding it.  I have to make another 17 small bowls at some point.  I filled a box with all the bisque pieces that I have done and it is now safely at the shop waiting for some bookings.

I want to experience some more good pots, I don't want to have to wait till all the events in the summer.

It is looking more and more like I need a reduction kiln, I hate not being able to do it myself, I feel so helpless.

Well I'm off to paint now.

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.

Children Throwing Pottery

A few days ago my little boy came in and had his third tutoring session on the wheel, has usually won't let me help him at all but this day he did and  really enjoyed himself.  He is 3 year old soon and he likes making pots like daddy, though he asked me the other day why I hadn't made a pot dinosaur and I told him to ask his mummy as she is the one that makes the animals.

12 Before 12 and 24 by 12.45

It happened on Tuesday, I was told I could only work one day and even then I might not get fired as everyone has already left Uni, but I decided to throw anyways as I had come all the way into Uni to do something else. I got in after 10am as I always do because of the bus I catch. My aim was to throw as much as I could in the day, but I only stayed till 2.

So here are my twelve, I left them as tumblers when I went in yesterday, as I liked the way they held without a handle and of all the things I have to sell so far I don't have tumblers to go with my jugs

The other 12 I threw are basic tea cups, I wasn't happy with some I already had. These tea cups all had handles added yesterday when I went in. I also threw 2 sugar bowls, two teapot bodies, two spouts and four lids, unfortunately I dropped one of the teapot bodies yesterday.


I still don't feel happy that I have enough things to sell until I can arrange my studio space, but I don't have any option now unless I do a throwing course somewhere.

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.

A new day a new Attittude

Sleep really does the mind good, I'm so glad that it does. As it is now technically my holidays I should be doing paperwork for the next two weeks, I do have a wheel at home but the kiln I have isn't connected to the electric supply so I can't even bisque my work. I will probably try and throw one day while I am off I only have a limited supply of clay right now, mainly terracotta which is a bit useless for a stoneware potter. hopefully I will find some time to paint whilst my little boy is at nursery one day, I have some new paints so there is no excuse, even if I just end up painting a picture of one of my bowls with lemons in



These are some close ups of my platters, I love how the iron speckles break apart the broad strokes.



This is the workshop I work in at University, as you can see it is quite cramped, especially when we have had up to 15 people working in here at any given time, so I tend to wedge together as much clay as I think I will need for the morning and then get on with it, same for the afternoon. I started making platters again last week as you can see here, as my mark finally arrived last Wednesday after many problems with Parcel Force who kept trying to deliver my order to a place in Poulton which is the next town over which has a similar street name but not the same post code or town name.


Here is an impression of my mark, it works much better on leather hard clay and forms a really crisp image, I love it. Anthea's stamp is a cute little fox which is the same as the logo on our website red fox pottery.

Something a little different for me

Yay back to throwing for me, I have missed it and as I was shown how to make lids on Thursday, on Friday I decided to make some bowls to learn the basics of the skill. The other major thrower on the course is throwing these to like twice the size and ever so accurately, whereas my rims are a little wonky and I am only using between 1 and 2 kilo of clay. My goal is to be able to throw enough clay to make a bread crock by the time I leave University.


On other things, the large gas kiln was fired on Thursday! I had a look inside on Friday, but it was too hot still to open it properly to get a photograph. So my first job of the day on Tuesday is to empty my kiln and get loads of photographs, then I can start joining designinit.org.uk and a few other places where I have been advised to make a profile. I can also think about getting my business cards done for my degree show.

Work on the website has been a little slow this week, and my business set up enquires have been stressing me out to no end. Oh well, heres to another week.

Pottery Masterclasses

Last Thursday for the first time since I learned to centre clay I have been receiving tuition from Kevin Millward who according to the head of course has two claims to fame, he was the potter off the BBC's Generation Game and he threw the Sophie Conran Portmeirion range, he is a very imposing person especially after he threw a teapot body from start to finish in around two minutes and that is when he was explaining as he went along. He makes our tech look slow, not that speed it everything it isn't but his skills are just amazing, he uses one metal rib with two finger holes and a wire.

After seeing the demo's the other third year students asked me me what I thought, my response was a simple "I'm going home now" he went through everything that was wronng with my work, so I needed a break to recover from the big long list.

He is being paid to teach the first years but as they are just learning to centre and do a single pull he has plenty of time on his hands to teach the three of us third years who need the help as we are more or less self taught.

I asked about handles so he pulled some and attached them to my jug, they stayed on most of the day until I got a bit messy with water and they snapped off, though he said they wouldn't stick at all. Tried to do the same thing yesterday on my pots but it just didn't work.

He took one of my pots as I was throwing it and showed me how to improve upon all the really fine details, there is a lot he went through with me and at the time it seemed a bit much but I appreciate it now.

He taught a slightly different method of throwing than the one I was taught so as you can see it took me a while to get used to it, he also insisted that I don't slide my pots off the wheel with water like I was originally taught apparently "no proffessional pottery uses that method" I have so much still to learn I know that but at the same time as I am learning this I am also trying to learn how to set up and run my own business. Any advice would be welcome.

I have 4 more Tuesdays with Kevin but at some point I have to fill the large gas kiln, I was unsatisfied with my test firing but I know where it went wrong, my glaze was either too thick or thin and I think I had too much cobalt on the brush as it was turning more green than blue. Forgot to get pictures but I will get them tomorrow inbetween my 101 jobs and demo's

Tools

I have a set of tools that I have pretty much been using since September when I sat down and went through all the tools I have in my tool box and picked what is essential, the rubber kidney got added one week when I mis-placed my mud tools soft kidney, I have two sorts of wires, one traditional wire and the other is also from mud tools which I really love

Today though I went up to Northern Kilns and bought a new trimming tool, they don't make them there but they have started supplying they from Clay man I think. Anyways they have started supplying tools and clay as well as all their standard range of kilns and refurbished wheels and one of the guys their Dylan was showing me their range for potters working out of a small garage which is based around a work bench that can fit clay underneath wheel and kiln to either side and then the top left for wedging and reclaiming clay. If I just wanted to stay really small in my mothers garage I would definitely go for all that.

I forgot to take in my camera all last week but I am taking it in this week as I have have a test kiln coming out so then I can make some more decisions about the final pieces that are going to go into the big kiln at the end of the week!

12 Pots before 12 Noon

I decided to do Michael Kline's 12 pots before twelve noon challenge, unfortunately I didn't quite manage, as I didn't manage to start throwing until 11.10 so only managed to throw seven pots in the remaining time, and I even ended up throwing the one on the far right away.













I made it up by throwing 15 pots before one which isn't a very good rate but I hurt my back yesterday and after I had thrown the first seven my back pain started getting to me, I should have rested today but as I haven't managed to throw yet this week I wasn't going to give up the opportunity.
















working on a mug to go with this range which is what I was working on on the far right but I'm not happy with the how the design for the larger mugs translates

Stop Procrastination, Start Working!

This week has been a slow week for making pots as most of my time seems to have been taken up by learning how to pull handles. It has been a big learning curve as I have never been taught how, I have watched the University Technician from across the room pulling some for his mug and of course I have read books like the one by Phil Rogers and watched various videos by Simon Leach but nothing compares to when you get your hands around that clay and try for yourself.

I wish I had some photos of that but alas I forgot my camera and I forgot to put my wife's camera back in her bag too, so no photos of this weeks work, but I do have photos from previous weeks
















I have thrown about twenty of these bowls so far and I am hoping to sell them off at farmers markets later in the year when I have officially set up as trading, as my business studies teach has been going on about the whole necessity of doing that.

They are about 600 grams of clay and are going to be decorated like my other work, with white glaze and oxide decoration, not sure about whether they will be oxidation or reduction yet.

They are based on soup bowls I saw at Gretna Services on my way back from Scotland.















On the left is a one kilogram bowl, it has much thicker walls as I thought about it being used in the oven, I have considered throwing a lid for it, but that is a whole new skill that I have yet to learn. Though I attend a university, neither of the tutors that I am working with this year can throw, both have interesting ideas but not being able to throw is a major set back when teaching someone who is trying to improve throwing.

Need to either buy or make a huge batch of white glaze this next week, though the baby was sick yesterday and if he is sick again today I won't get back to work until Thursday

One last image to finish this post, this is a mug I threw before Christmas, it is my favourite glazed piece that came out of the last kiln of last year. this is where I am going from this year. This mug is thrown from a kilo of clay and holds about a pint of fluid. This last week I threw some more and they were about an inch taller, proving to myself that I have improved over the last few months.

Will try and post some images of the newer pots as the week goes on.