Happy New Year

Here's to a good 2011

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year,  we are taking both weekends off and of course Christmas Eve, which is my busiest baking day of the year.  It has been a busy few weeks and I am gradually getting into the swing of things, but we have a long way to go.

We have a lot more activities in the New Year, we have a Kids and Clay club starting to get local children interested in Pottery.  There are still lots of Pottery Lessons Available, and if you come and visit us we can teach you to make an animal or throw your own personal breakfast bowl and mug.

Our big mugs have been popular so another batch of those have been thrown as well as a smaller mug that is made with the same style in mind.

 Our new shop sign over one of our two arches and on the pictures below you can see how the shop now looks inside.  With the cold weather things don't dry very fast in the shop and rarely become bone dry so they tend to dry out on my kitchen table at home for a day before being fired.  The walls are still quite bare but we promised some space to a young photographer who is interested in selling some of his photographs, large ones of course.  We also have some clocks etc that we are going to put up on the wall, I'm just doing a few more glaze tests.

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.

Busy Busy Busy

The Pottery is keeping me so busy these days, things are slow there so I keep throwing in the window and try and get some interest, and people seem to like it from what they say as they pass but getting them through the doors is another matter, we do have visitors that come in but I need a way of getting more people through our doors rather than just looking in.

Earlier in the week we had our plastic splash backs fitted around the pottery, I don't have pictures yet but I will do soon.

Today has been a busy day, we went to our little boys preschool for their nativity play.  As he is one of the younger ones, ie under 3 he was dressed as Santa, he seems a lot bigger than the other under twos.  After that we headed to the shop and I threw 8 sake cups as a Friend commissioned me to make some, I threw some pouring bottles to go with them yesterday and the ones that were too big had handles attached and are now jugs.

This Afternoon our sign came from Broadway Publishing in Blackpool, it looks really good, but the fitting will have to wait until next week.  Then tonight was my Baby Brother's 21st Birthday Party, I can't believe he has gotten so old, I still think of him being about 8 or 9.  I went up to the Thornton Cleveley's Football Club, I took the little one and I don't drink anyways.  Once the little one got tired we came home and put him to bed and have been trying out my new camera and photo tent. It still needs a little tweaking and probably another light.

This Sunday we are at the Thornton Cleveley's YMCA craft Fair from 10-4 where we will be selling things and advertising our services including Children's Parties.  I have thrown a series of small mugs, bud vases and ice cream bowls that all weighed 250g when they were wet, so then the can be decorated whilst children are taking turns on the wheels.

These are some coggles that I made, though Simon Leach did a video of them, the Technician at UCLAN had some in his tool box and I always wondered what they were for.  I realise now I should have asked more questions when I was there.  They are for applying  repeating textures to pottery, I tested them before they were bisque fired.

Incense Stick Holder, I have some glazed in a speckled blue as well as this white and I am going to make some with crushed glass instead of the glaze, which will go in the next firing.

Oyster Plate, I threw this after watching a video on Youtube, I am really interested in using textures again in my work.  It is about the size of a side plate rather than a full sized plate.

Spoon Rest, the speckled blue is just the white with a small amount of cobalt added

I have made even more tea light holders as I was running out and then as soon as I threw these and bisque fired them I found another 10 of the reduction fired ones

Double "Twin Cherry" bowl, Twin Cherry was my wife's idea of what to call them, based on work that Simon Leach makes on YouTube the are just glazed on the inside and I have 5 of them, all in the white glaze.

Here is the Marsh Mill "Windmill" I was making, it has only been bisqued and is awaiting some more details before I put a thin layer of transparent on it.

Yarn Bowl, I have seen a few people making these recently and we have a wool shop a few doors away so I thought I would made some, but I didn't like the others so they are happily slaking down in a bucket at the shop.

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.

Working had to get ready for the weekend

 So Friday 12th November we took over the Lease of Unit 9 of the Marsh Mill Craft Village, and received the keys to the door.  Marsh Mill is located in Thornton Cleveleys which you go through to get to Fleetwood from the Motorway, it is North of Blackpool and St. Annes and I have lived around here since I was quite young and is only a stones throw from the beach.  Marsh Mill was built in 1794 and is the only really major landmark here in Thornton apart from the long closed down Train Station, if you need a train you have to go up to Poulton Le Fylde.  Enough of a history lesson, we have a lot of hard work over the next few days are it is the Marsh Mill Christmas light switch on and we want to appear to be open by then.

When we first moved to Thornton in the early 90s I remember these sails turning around but last time I went in they said that cap couldn't turn around and they were waiting for a part, that was over 2 years ago I keep hoping to see it working again.

This is the outside of the shop, we are getting a sign made but at the moment our sign says we are "Marsh Mill Needlecraft" to our left we are getting 4D Photography Studios, it has been interesting seeing their false walls go up.  to our other side is a tattoo parlour, there is also a craft shop, wool shop, music shop, teashop, nails, hair, printing, pub and a restaurant

We pulled up the carpet and have sealed the concrete, we just need to get all the furniture in, I got a sideboard from a local e-store that refurbish furniture Apple Dumpling Antiques, I took delivery of it this morning and it is really nice.

There is a nice little nook and it is in here that I am going to put my big potters wheel so then I can throw and can always have sunlight, not like at Preston University.

We have 3 potters wheel at the moment and we are going to be offering throwing and hand building classes as well as selling our own work, and accepting commissions.

More pictures once we are set up in the next few days.

Dates for the Callender

Sunday 21st November - Pottery Demonstrations 3-4pm, free

Saturday 28th November - Decorate a Christmas Bauble, 1.99 per item, from 10am

Saturday 4th December - Taster classes £10 per person, from 10am

Greenland's Farm Village

On Saturday we were at Greenland's Farm Village, we were supposed to be in a marquee but we had gale force 7 winds Thursday and Friday, and I heard it blew away and caused some damage so we were in the Educational barn.

My sister wrote the price signs as my hand writing is terrible, it always looks like a spider has crawled across the page, if I slow down to a letter a minute it isn't too bad.

We had a good two days but I was constantly distracted by the fact I had taken the keys to the shop on Friday.