Aylesford

The car is all loaded up for Aylesford. The weather is looking far more promising than last year!
One of my latest jugs-remember the Adam and Eve theme?

Latest firing

Here are a few pictures of pots out of the kiln this morning. I've tried to take a leaf from Ron's book and make the drawings of the rabbits more lively and free. Not too sure it worked but I did quite a bit of experimenting and will need to have a good look at the pots to see what I think worked best and what I might try again.
On the outside of the mermaid bowl I gave her a purse. (Every girl should have one!)
Kiln is now on again and the next batch of pots will be out on Sunday morning.

Demonstrating

I spent Saturday demonstrating at The Grace Barrand Design Centre, a local gallery. This was as part of Surrey Open Studios.
Unfortunately the gallery will be closing soon. They did a great coffee and my daughter and I are going to miss our get togethers there.
Today I have been busy glazing. I've got a glaze firing on tonight and enough pots glazed for another firing as soon as I empty this one.
I'm getting ready for Ceramics South East.
Tomorrow I've got to paint shelves to take with me!! It never ceases to amaze me how many non pottery jobs there seem to be to running a pottery.

slipping

Above are some bowls I've made this week. I've thrown 10 or more .
Sometime ago a lady commissioned a bowl and asked if it could be 'not brown' on the outside. Usually I just decorate the inside. For her bowl I inverted the bowl on the wheel and applied green slips with a large, flat brush. It did infact turn out good and the lady was pleased. However, it has left me wondering if I could make some bowls with decoration on the inside and out. I haven't fould it easy to get the slip on the outside. One of the smaller bowls I tried dipping in the slip but it fell apart!! (You may laugh. I won't mind).
Anyway, I am now applying it by pouring and the top picture shows the awkward way I have worked out for doing it. I invert the bowl on top of the turn table and pour away. Just leaves an acrobatic flick over for pot and turntable to be able to move onto the next pot.
I had initially thought that I would decorate these quite quickly but of course there is far more surface to decorate!! It will take the rest of this week to finish decorating them.

Glaze firing

The pots at the top were the ones that came out of the kiln this morning. They are quite a bit bigger than the other shape but that may not show in the photographs. I am not sure which I prefer, the top ones are much quicker to make but I do like the shape of the others.
Today I had to reclaim some clay but I still managed to throw a number of bowls. I am hoping to slip them tomorrow and throw some more.
The weather today was very pleasant which means I can have the studio door open onto the garden.

Holiday

Last week Mark and I went on a walking holiday to Ofer's Dyke. It was quite a challenging walk and on the Sunday the weather was very wet and up on the hills at the Stipper Stones the weather closed in and the mists came down.
For me the highlight of the four days was not the walking but our visit to Whichford pottery. They had opened the Octagon Gallery since we visited a year ago. There were plenty of beautiful pots to admire and I bought a large bowl by the Keelings. The gallery assistant made us a cup of coffee and we were able to have our picnic in their garden amidst all the flower pots. You cann't ask for better service than that! The picture shows their dog with Mark he kept us company through the picnic.
This Saturday I went to the National Gallery to see the Alison Watt exhibition. She had selected a series of films to link into her exhibition.
I saw 'Untold Scandal'. Visually it was the most beautiful film I have ever seen. The costumes were magnificent and the attention to detail breathtaking. (Just would not want to take teenage sons to see it).
Yesterday did more glazing so should have most of the jugs out of the firing tomorrow. Even though the results in the electric kiln are very much the same each time (apart from glaze errors) I still always look forward to opening the kiln.