Compton

Last Saturday we went for a visit to Compton. It's a small Surrey village and a very pleasant trip if you want to get out of the house for a couple of hours. There is a chapel there built to the memory of Issac Watts. He was a Victorian painter who had celebrity status. After his death his wife, a potter built it with the help of her workers. It's all terra- cotta, pretty much every bit of it as are many of the tomb stones in the grave yard.


The top picture is Mary Wonderauch's pottery. Mary lives in Compton so I called in to see her. It was really inspirational to see all the varied work that she is still making.
Most of you probably realise that if you click onto the link for Michael Kline'sblog he has a very comprehensive list of pottery bloggers- a handy resourse. For those of you who want even more pottery blogs you can check out Kitty Shepherd's, I've only recently come across it.

More bowls!!

Here we are with my daughter and son-in-law at the end of our walking holiday, just to show we returned in one piece. Only just though I had a fairly spectacular fall and went backwards and ended up wedged in a crevice. Mark had to come and pull me out. I don't know which mountain is behind us but it is one of the ones we walked.
The countryside was very beautiful and the weather was most wonderful.
A shop in Abergavenny,this painting wrapped it's self around the building.
This cockerel was suspended in the local market at Abergavenny. There were several of them but I could only get this one in the picture.

These are the latest bowls out of the kiln. Yes- even more bowls. These are ready for Ceramics South East at Aylesford at the end of June. The jugs are not particularly successful as I've put the glaze on fairly thinly. However they have given me ideas that I want to explore so it's all progress. Every time I open the kiln it motivates me to get on with making more pots. I have got a head full of pots I want to make. I don't think I will get too much done this week as it's half term so I need to get my sketch book out and get all the ideas on paper.
As I type this I can hear Ry Cooder playing somewhere in the background and life is very pleasant.

Stoneware?

Oh no can they really be stoneware? These are jugs I made to demonstrate to one of my students so I have used the same clay and glaze that he was using. At first I wondered what I could do with them-but a friend had a birthday so I baught a couple of bunches of flowers and put them in the larger one. Birthday presentsorted! When the adult education centre closed about three years ago I inherited these glazes.
Let me introduce you to my daughter and my eldest son. He's all ready to go to his 'leavers' bash'. I now have two boys at home on 'study leave' as they are doing A levels and GCSEs.

This week....

This week has been a very short week as it was a bank holiday on Monday and I was teaching in a local school on Wednesday. The teaching was great fun as the children really enjoy a whole day of pottery. The little figure above was a sort of clay doodle. I should not have been messing about as I've got far too much work to do but sometimes it's so nice to play with the clay.
Wet , newly slipped bowls. I threw 5 of these. They are all over 12 inches in diameter. I've had a commission for a bowl for a wedding so while I was throwing I thought I may as well do a few.
Waiting for glaze.
These jugs are a shape I've come up with for my students to try as I think they are probably an easy shape for them to aim for with a wide bottom and not too much curve, the weight is distributed evenly. But I quite like the simplicity of them so I may try to develop them. There are so many ideas I want to work on at the moment and there are so many enjoyable things to do in life it's difficult to fit it all in and to prioritize!! Never mind there is always tomorrow.

More bowls

Ouite a few of these jugs I did to demonstrate to a student. When I taught in Adult Education I never kept any of the pots I did to demonstrate but it suddenly ocured to me that I could actually finish these jugs now I am in my own studio. They are all in the Kent clay which I am still working on in between doing my usual work.
The bowls are very small-500 grams of clay. There are about 20 still under polythene waiting to be decorated.
Ihave had a day off today because I have a cough and it makes working difficult. I strolled around the garden to see everything bursting into fresh green shoots. The bluebells have just appeared on the bank- I never planted them so that is a pleasant bonus. I am all ready looking forward to getting back to work tomorrow.

End of holiday!!

The troglodytes have been bivouacked at my house for the past fortnight but tomorrow they regroup at school. Mostly I have been feeding boys, washing , ironing cleaning and taxing. Saturday my youngest son was 13 so we took the boys to Wagamamas. Today Mark and I left boys to their own devises and spent the day at the V and A. It was the necessary antidote.
I have also been doing a little painting. I have bought several different watercolour papers to experiment with. They are so different to work with. But I am all ready thinking that it would take a large investment in time to learn about watercolour painting and I may just go back to enjoying it in a light hearted way and not worry about the technicalities too much!

Easter Break

Happy Easter everybody! This is our 'Easter tree'. We are in holiday mood and have spent the day gardening and enjoyed a walk around the lake. The birds are all busy pairing up and nest making.The herons have flown over the house twice and they are quite a sight up close.
This is my orchid which I am posting for Miri . It may look fairy small but it has been blooming for months. I was going to throw it away before Miri potted it up in one of her bowls. Miri has been setting up a pottery in Puerto Rico and it's looking really good.
Finished these bowls last week but I don't think I will get too much done this week with the boys all at home. Maybe a firing or two to keep things moving along.