Friday's work

 I finished this box on Friday. I had hoped that I would finish another one but working out the design proved to be time consuming and so I didn't finish the second. Although I've worked on drawings in my sketch pad they don't match the scale of the pot so I've had to rework them to fit.
Gradually the window end of my studio is becoming a drawing area. I think I will need to re think this when I need to do some glazing.

Slab building

 The weather was so pleasant yesterday morning that instead of going straight out to the studio we went for a walk. Although the walk wasn't far from our house we had never done quite the same route before. The blue mosaics form the ceiling of the monument above. The bluebells were a wonderful intense blue.

At the moment I am working on some slab built 'reliquaries'. This one is very similar to the one I made for myself recently but I thought I'd start with this to progress to some slightly different ideas I want to work on. Sometimes it's easier to work up to something than to jump straight in.

A new shape

I've just finished a run of small tureens so I thought before I got onto the next batch of work I'd experiment with a different shape. I think this is a bit too tall but I will probably explore the idea a bit more when I can find the time. I am just wondering if the shape isn't quite right for slipware! However it does provide a good surface for decoration. ( Is there a 'right ' shape for slipware?)

When it goes wrong.

I've been working on these small tureens today and yesterday. I thought I had a good idea to make some ladles to go with them. Unfortunately they didn't survive being dipped into the slip. They are probably just not a very good shape for slipping so it's time to re-think that process. I still like the idea but obviously need to go about it a different way!

A week-end outing.

In January/ February issue of Ceramic Review there was an article entitled 'Beautiful Brickwork', about Watts Chapel in Compton. When friends came for lunch on Saturday I gave them the article to read whilst I got the lunch. They expressed an interest in visiting it so we took an impromptu trip to Compton
The whole place is a confection of terracotta. During the creation of it more than 70 local villagers contributed making it a real community project.
I had forgotten to take my camera but I found these images on the Internet.

This is my desk!

I very rarely watch TV instead I tend to 'fiddle 'about at my desk. I've just finished painting these fish. I very quickly lost interest in the painting as I only copied the fish out of various books, however, they may well end up on a bowl, or maybe around the sides of a large storage jar.

Morning coffee

When I've got the chaps off to work and school I'm ready to start my day and I always start with a coffee. I usually have my note book handy and try to think through what I need to be doing each day.
I unpacked the kiln yesterday so there is work at every stage filling the studio. Amongst the pieces that came out of the kiln were these 'feather' bowls. Although there is another batch in the kiln tonight I am already thinking that I need to make more. At the moment I have a long list of things I want to make and I'm wondering how I can organise my time to work really efficiently.
Last week I took Friday off and went to the Ceramics Art London event at the Royal College of Art. I then walked down to the V and A and had another look at their ceramics galleries. I took quite a few photographs but they were all very blurred. Then I found that it's all on line. I posted a few pictures in Pinterest but you can easily go into their web site and search the collections. Make yourself a coffee though as you may be there some time.

Reliquary

A few years ago at Potfest the competition was entitled 'shrine or reliquary'. This was one of the ideas I played with at the time. However, I did nothing with it as I wanted the feather to be set in resin. I never got around to researching how to do that but a friend has just done it for me.
I'm not sure I'll have the time to do anything with the idea now but I am finding this fascinating, apparently you can set almost anything in resin my friends are exploiting the idea setting pieces of text and found objects into the resin.
While we were with our friends we also visited Tate Margate. So it was a relaxing, enjoyable week-end.