Templates

 For many of the designs I do on my pots I make templates. I place these templates on the leather hard pots to draw an outline- this insures that I can get them in the right place as mistakes can't be rectified.
I now have hundreds of these cut out drawings all over the place. So i was wondering if I could use them for any other purpose.
I decided to try using them for some embroidery. Well if I thought pottery was a slow process I hadn't tried embroidery. If I ever finish this piece I don't think I will be repeating the process.

 Here are some plates I got out of the kiln on Monday. Again using the template method. I'm calling these the alphabet plates. There are a few more to go through the kiln but again I'm not sure about these. I'd seen some old children's plates in an antique shop that gave me the idea.

Taking photographs

When I restated after the Christmas break I had quite a few pots waiting to be glazed. In some ways that has been good because I've had finished pots through the kiln which has made me feel I am making progress.
It has also helped to warm the studio up which is a bonus given the really cold weather. In fact, I put a biscuit firing on before I came in tonight and I am already looking forward to the comfort of a warm studio tomorrow.
Today I thought I should take some photos of this recent work. Usually I take photos outside. I wait for a very bright sunny day and then take them in a shady area. However with the very wet and cold weather we've been having I decide that I should try to take some photos in doors.
The top three pictures and the bottom two are taken in doors. Then I thought I should brave the cold and damp and take some outdoors so that I could compare the two. They are picture four and five.
Neither are exactly what I want and I'm thinking when I finish the pots I am currently working on it may be time to look for a professional photographer.

A holiday with a difference.

 We went out to China before Christmas to visit my daughter who lives in Xi'an. We had a wonderful time and returned in time for Christmas. ( You may be pleased to hear that the coat didn't make it back I thought it best to leave it in China).
We did many excursions and ate a huge range of Chinese food, visited plush, luxurious hotels and villages living in traditional Chinese style which probably hasn't changed for hundreds of years.

 However, there was not much of pottery interest. There was of course the terra-cotta warriors. There certainly were armies of them and they were definitely impressive.

 There was Xi'an's pottery museum. Xi'an was once China's capital and the beginning of the silk route. The museum was amazing with it's wonderful tri-coloured horses and beautiful carved celadon vases.
But, of course, best of all was spending time with my daughter and her husband. Mark and my middle son Toby also came so there was much laughter and fun. 
I have hundreds of photos so I might just post a few more at some stage.

Art in Clay

 You may be forgiven if you think I have retired as I've posted so little recently. But no, I've been steadily potting away. All the work tops in the studio are crowded with pots waiting to go to Farnham.
Tomorrow we set up in The Maltings ready for the week-end festival. Check out this link to see who's exhibiting and whats on.
Life has been very busy with a challenging number of  'things' to sort.( Cars needing attention, central heating breaking down, visas to be applied for. You get the picture).
I like to be able to concentrate on the pottery and really give it all my attention so the last few weeks have been too full of distractions. But somehow I feel that I have managed to keep working and retain a sense of humour.

Half-term visits

 It was half-term last week so I headed to Wales to visit my parents. Whilst there I visited the gallery in Carmarthen.http://www.orielmyrddingallery.co.uk/
The exhibition last week was the Jerwood Makers Open. One of the exhibitors was  William Shannon who had set himself the brief to create a workshop for an imaginary potter. Just the mention of pottery had me hooked. The accompanying programme said that  this imaginary potter 'has limited resources (as potters tend to).'
The outcome was delightful and I'm sure some of us might like a pocket sized raku studio. Glenn Adamson ( Head of Research at the V and A) who wrote the accompanying essay, suggests that the experiment is 'entirely absurd, or at least symbolic...Symbolically, it is a miniature temple to self-reliance. In practice he could never have made it without the support of the Jerwood Maker's Open'.
To some extent I can see his point. William had made tiles for the exterior of the studio by raku firing tiles. On that scale a slow process. After all if you want individually hand made hung tiles you go to my friend at Babylon Tile Works. Just see the rows of tiles he produces below. However, I found it quite encouraging to think that people are looking at the idea of producing from locally sourced materials and being self-sufficient.
I was tempted to start 'playing ' with the tools and materials but I don't think it was meant to be inter-active.

I take 'The World of Interiors' magazine. In one of the issues it had mentioned an antique shop that shows Welsh pottery. That was enough for me - I was off in search of Tim Bowen Antiques. I was not disappointed. He had a wonderful collection of slipware from Buckley. I think it's joyful, lively and fresh looking. So simple yet with it's treacle, honey and amber colours warm and practical. Of course the use of script on it is also of interest to me.
Tomorrow I'm off to hear a talk by Alison Britton at The Crafts Study Centre in Farnham. On the one hand I feel I cann't afford to take any time off work but I also feel I need to get out of the studio every now and again and expose myself to other influences.

commission

Here are some pictures of a commission I delivered last week. When I was first asked to do a bowl with a greenhouse and very specific plants at first I thought it was too difficult. But then I thought I should give it a try, partly because I know how much pleasure it gives to people to have something made specifically for them. I had to be quite focused because if I spend too much time working on these there is no profit in making them. I hope I've got the balance right.

Pots and Food at wardlow Mires

 At the week-end we were at a festival of pottery and food in Wardlow Mires, Derbyshire. The idea was that potters producing domestic ware should show it alongside food producers.
The combination made for a very enjoyable week-end. We interspersed the selling of pots with sampling the wares of the food producers.
There was also a stall exhibiting Brampton Pottery. This was salt glazed ware produced by a consortium of potteries in the Chesterfield area I think produced in the 18th century. Josie Walter wrote a small book about them and you can find much of the text here. 
I was delighted to see the pots as I've only seen them in Josie's books before.They are quite exuberant with lots of sprigging.

 Did I mention that as well as Brampton pots I share a name with a brewery?
There was a stall selling Brampton beer but I won't tell you if I sampled that as well as the food.