Hi my name is Joseph...

and I am a throwing addict... and it has been 4 weeks since I have thrown my last piece of pottery.

It has been a busy 4 weeks preparing for the show, doing some home decoration, trying to get on top of all the jobs before the baby finishes nursery.

Yesterday was spent at Uni planning what was going to London next week, whilst I was in that meeting my mum was working hard to get all the other work wrapped up so we could clear out the uni.  I now have my work in various bags and boxes.  Today I started working through a box to work out what I am going to take with me to Stanley Park on the 18th July. 

I am putting together some press packs over the next few days for the London Event.

I have started the property search for a studio again, and have looked further a field but without having the option to move there it will cost me so much more to travel there every day via the buses.

Hopefully by the end of the month I am looking to be set up as I really want to get back on that wheel.

Degree Show Opening

Last night our degree show opened, it was quite busy and had plenty of people looking around and had quite a bit of interest in my work and people wishing me well for the future and saying I should do well in my future venture.  My old tutor made it out too, and I enjoyed chatting with him about the last five years here at UCLAN.

If anyone is in the North West of England, please feel free to come and have a look around we are in Victoria Building room 015 at the Preston City Campus.

Here are some Pictures of other peoples work, I will update if I get website details

Lorry Cudmore - A moment in Time.  Slab/Mould made forms with a mixture of clay and firing techniques her work is full of texture.

Joanne Throp - She makes these amazing bottles and tea bowls that come on a slab, she has a variety of pieces as well as some that are much bigger and smaller but all based around the bottles form, all her work is Thrown on the Potters Wheel and glazed inside.

Roisin Dougherty - her work is made from paper clay, with two of the pieces having glass eyes.

Anthea Travis (my wife) - She makes these charming animals, hand-building them in a variety of ways.  The heads are play on hunting trophies

Martha Evans - her work is made on the wheel by cutting shapes into the clay and stretching them out to alter the forms into these twisted pieces.

Anna Murfin - her work is wearable sculpture, full of texture and flows over the shoulder as can be seen in the background images.

Chris Catterall - Her work is based upon animal horns and really interact well together, not something you could have just one of.

Hayley Stubbs - Porcelain paper clay shell based forms

Helen - work based on wrinkled body parts, they are made up of two layers of clay that pull and stretch away from each other helping things look even more wrinkled.

Steven Telford - They are supposed to be seats, they are crank fired up to earthenware temperature so then he could get the bright colours

We have moved

Yes that's right the blog has moved from painterlypotter.blogspot.com to joseph.redfoxpottery.com

Over the next week I hope to do a little reformating.
The Degree Show opens to the public a week today so here is a quick teaser of one of my areas in the show

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.

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.

Kiln Opening

Just a quick posting

I unloaded my kiln on Monday, and I have been busy ever since as my degree show is due this Friday and things are more than a little hectic around here so just the one picture right now, hopefully Friday Evening I can settle down to a real post.

Leach Pottery and a Sneak Peek

Well I managed to get the kiln loaded in a single day on Tuesday, it got fired on Wednesday and when I got in on Friday it was still too hot to unload, I did mange to get a sneak peek into the kiln though, it looks like a good firing, but I won't know until I manage to unload everything which is on Monday now.


On another note we had a visiting lecturer for the day, all the way from St Ives. the lecturer in question was Jack Doherty who is lead potter at the restored Leach Pottery in St Ives and is the retired Chairman of the Craft Potters Association here in the UK. So we got to handle pieces from their standard range that they are producing, they are very nice pieces to handle, we also got to handle his personal work. The though the whole lot is soda fired, his work tries to avoid the "orange peel" affects that is the signature of soda firing. His work also has subtle blue colours throughout, as it was explained that he plays about with the slips to resist the soda and alter the colours.

He also did some demonstrations for us in porcelain, showing us the Leach pottery porcelain range of work and also how to make his own, which used 3 piles of clay and then coils. All the work was made on the wheel, though the first stage of his work he beat it into centre with a mallet that belonged to the pottery and with his fists. It gave me some ideas on what to do for some bigger pieces.

I also got to speak to him one on one about my work, as my tutor wanted me to ask about doing a pottery start up down there in St Ives, but it is a little far from anyone I know to help out with the little one. He was definitely an amazing potter to talk to.