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.

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.

My Range As It Stands

Well I was told by my business studies tutor that I had to take pictures of all my range as it stands right now. I took the pictures with my wife's camera and without the black base, I'm not entirely happy with the results but I want to put them up to start getting everything in order for the degree show and starting the business.

My teacup, I made saucers for these yesterday I just need to trim and fire them(and make more teacups) the handle is just big enough for one finger to fit through, I really love these and can't wait to make more. About 250grams of clay
This is my Coffee cup it is quite narrow to drink out of, handle needs a little refinement. 300grams
This is much wider than the coffee cup and is about the size of a normal mug and is so known as my medium mug. 400grams
My big mug, 1 kilo of clay so is much bigger than the rest of the mugs and probably holds more than all concerned. This is the status of the mug after my tuition from Kevin Millward. Before the tuition the rim was just straight from the normal cup but he advised me that a rim like this was easier to drink from especially from such a large vessel. These size of mugs are most popular amongst students.


Tea light holds are only about 100grams of clay and are good at filling the gaps in a reduction kiln, I have plenty of them.

Soup Bowls with handles, these are 600grams, I have a lot of these as I thought they would be very commercially viable, my business studies tutor and head of course agree. Though I have been asked to make either a lid or a side plate for these, I will probably go with the side plate option as the bowls aren't all the same size so I would have to make a lot of various sizes and cross my fingers.

Other straight sided bowls, though this one is only slightly bigger than the soup bowl, it is actually 800gram of clay and has much thicker walls so then it could go in the oven.
Two of my bigger platters finally here for you to see, they are 2 kilos of clay and were made before Christmas, though I did throw some yesterday as my mark has finally come so I can stamp them and hope they are good enough for my show. My throwing of these has improved but yesterday I was throwing bigger ones from 6 kilos of clay and it was hard going with that much clay.
My first teapot, unfortunately I can't remember what weight went into this after seeing a demo on teapots, I prefer the top to be an in the pot as the lids for the sort with an internal gallery are easier to make the right size than the almost tea light holder that will have to go on top of this.

I have a few more different bits but then are either green or biscuit. I only have 5 working weeks to get everything done for the show, then 3 weeks where I have to furiously create so then I have enough stock for the summer and hopefully to buy a gas kiln from the proceeds (and some training to go with it. I need to take some measurements of these so then there is a little more idea of scale.