A Trip Out - to a local school

This morning I went to a funeral which was nice as far as funerals go, my wife stayed with our friends as I had to work this afternoon.  I was doing demonstrations at a local school, so I had to get back to the pottery to clean the equipment up to get it in the car.

We were just doing demo's so we were quite loosely packed otherwise we have boxes etc to fit in and around the wheel too.  IT was one of the classrooms furthest from the school entrance so we had quite a walk with the Shimpo, so I will be glad to get the discus which will be easier to lug around.

New Designers - A London Exhibition

I went to New Designers this week, it is still on until 4pm July 4th at the Business Design Centre in Islington near the Angel subway station.  It was different to my degree show as there wasn't a way that I could sell to the public directly as there was only limited space in the van, so everything in the next few pictures was all I had with me.  It was so hot down in London that some of the things we attached to the walls fell off over night.

We were up on the balcony and took an extra board to help the whole thing seem a little more enclosed.  Our work seemed so much smaller here than it had in Preston, there were a lot of people passing by and now I am out of post cards so I am going to get some new ones printed this week.  Our technician had met with us in London and was helping us organise the space, though our head of course who was taken ill just before the degree show came down to see us on the opening night.  Kevin Millward who taught me for a few weeks finally got to see some finished work as it was just going into the kiln on the last week he was in Preston and told me which pieces of my work he liked and those bits he didn't.

Our stand was on the right hand side by the stairs that go up to the higher level, on the lower level that you can see here was filled with textiles stands, there were 80 all in all compared to the 19 ceramics and glass stands.

Some pictures from the last firing

I keep hoping I will get a chance at another firing soon but it is looking unlikely until I get my own studio. I have started remaking enquiries again and I am seeing the business advisor this week too. I have also finished all my applications for events in the fall, then in the fall I have to start making applications for next year, I should have more stock by then.

Twelve days left until the degree show opening, and I still haven't managed to get a hold of my old tutor yet. I do have a lead at finding him as one of my ex tutors lives around the corner from my parents but I have avoided asking him as it isn't the done thing. MY old tutor is retired 5 years now, he retired half way through my National diploma in Illustration.

Anyways here are a few pots from the last firing.

There were a lot of teacups and saucers but this was the only coffee cup and I have already had a few offers to buy, so I had to turn people down, will have to sell it after the degree show as it is tied up there until the 18th now.

This is my mark on the bottom of one my platters I really do like how it looks.
This is the largest of my platters and is about 40 cm in diameter, I can't really fit anything much bigger in the kiln as it would go over the edge of the shelf and melt like one of my other platters did.
This really was a firing for platters as I had so many, so many in fact that I still have some left over unglazed.
This is a tea set I made from "Porcelain White" Stoneware (from Valentine Clays) it is supposed to look like porcelain but isn't as translucent. I am hoping to try porcelain itself but I haven't had chance as one of our fellow students urgently needed a bag so we sold her ours. I did try and make tea cups but the handles split in half whilst drying. As a clay it is very different to what I am used to, it resisted being formed, it is like throwing wet plaster scraps. I do like the contrast it provides to my usual range.

If there is anything from the firing that anyone wants to see just ask.

In a day or two I will post some images of the jugs I made using different clays.

Different Clays

I have a couple of different clays hiding in my supply cupboard, there is porcelain, Arctic white stoneware and porcelain white stoneware and of course this earthenware clay called "surprise clay" surprise clay is from GreatArt.co.uk. Anthea bought me the surprise clay two birthdays ago to try to throw with, as it was a gift I was afraid to mess up so I have saved it until now. As you can see it swirls with colours through the middle, it is a combination of oxides and different sorts of silica as far as I can tell as it was like throwing with sand.

I threw the entire bag of clay on Thursday, I have a small reclaim pile that I am going to wedge and make some more pieces from. These are just a few of the pieces there were actually 3 boards full of things. It was interesting throwing with the clay, very different to what I am used to.

This piece actually started off a bit taller and a lot wider, I cut straight lines into the clay(faceted) and then stretched it out on the wheel, it shows how sedimentary the clay was. It was very sandy so you couldn't rest your hand on the wheel head as it was like sand paper. The clay wasn't made for throwing it was resistant to being thrown and was a very thirsty clay.

Yesterday(Friday) I threw some tea bowls off the hump, unfortunately I haven't done the technique more than twice before so I had quite a few unsuccessful pieces and what is left here don't always have flat bottoms, but Fridays for me are just the afternoons, as I have a business class in the morning.

This next week I am planning on taking pictures of every different piece in my range so you can all see it, piece by piece.