Pottery Lessons - the results

These are the results of three individuals I gave some tuition to, on the left is Jordan who has been on the wheel with us before back when we were students but he is a very nervous thrower and I think he did very well even though he was scared of the clay.

In the Middle is Catherine and on the right is Ben,they are my younger brother and sister but they had never been on the pottery wheel before.

I think all three did really well, and if you are in the North West of England and want a new hobby or a just to make a bowl and a mug, we can teach you on any one of our three wheels, we can do it individually or a family group.

Last shots from my camera - The New Studio

Well my digital camera of a few years doesn't want to work any more, it turns on and every button works except the one to take pictures so the dresser that we have with all my work on I don't as yet have a picture of.  So these are the last few shots

I have been working on a few ceramic panels of local landmarks, but it is coming along slowly as I work on the things that I need to get thrown.

This is my big Podmore wheel and is my favourite to throw on, though I prefer to trim on the Shimpo wheel, the Shimpo never really feels like it is on.

Here is the small Podmore and Shimpo wheels  in the opposite corner, they are very good wheels for beginners much smoother to throw on than the big on, and the right height for children.

We have various work tables to work on, we are just trying to get hold of a large wooden one for more people to site around and something to wedge on too.  If anyone has any ideas for a good work surface so then I don't have to go to the kitchen to wedge on the kitchen counter.

This is one of the three areas we have to display our work and we are constantly changing it round until we can sell a few more pots.


We finally got our streamline machine today so we can accept card payments.

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