Friday Friday

A day of slipping pots. I've gotten a lot of things done today, feels good, made a big dent on the list. I even sieved my big bucket of glaze that I'd left soaking, well I sieved it through the 80 mesh, will need to put it through a smaller mesh tomorrow before I can glaze the pots that will hopefully come out of the bisque tomorrow. The bowl is pretty big for me, it's about 40cm diameter at the moment.

I have been decorating a couple of chalices today and I have a communion plate to do tomorrow too. These have been ordered by a couple who are going away to Uganda on a church exchange. Years ago when I was right at the beginning of making pots on my own I was commissioned by these same people to make I think there were 80 chalices for a festival. Although I completely undercharged for them at the time it was just what I needed, something to prove to myself that I could handle a slightly bigger than one mug type of project and a good sale even so. I still see the chalices when I am out and about, at Remembrance parade last year in Kells church there was one, and I saw another on the window of a church in Dumfries just the other week. It always feels good to be part of something bigger than just yourself.

Jugs have been slipped this afternoon.

And Paul has been playing with the turnings in the wheel head again - bless him.

Morning pot pic.

Pots on the worktop this morning while I was making breakfast. I've been meaning to put up a picture of the mug on the left from Matt for ages but it's always in the washing up bowl, tis my mug of choice at the moment.

Chaos.

Today has been silly. This last week or so as I'm getting more and more panicked the place gets more and more chaotic. I start to jig between jobs and not quite get one thing finished before worrying that I should be doing something else so things don't get tidied away properly or sorted out and I end up like this. I had to half pack the kiln this morning just because I'd run out of boards and space on my racks but before I could do that I had to unpack the glaze firing that has been sat there since sunday ready to unpack but I just haven't had the time. My desk was full of jugs needing handles so I had to move them before I could put the new pots anywhere. Usually I try to be really organised and the space I have I tend to have to be. Sometimes though it all runs away with me and this is one of those times.

I had pots outside just because I was out of space and it was sunny so they were drying nicely then it belted it down so I had to bring them in but then stood there like a nelly with a heavy board of pots and nowhere to put them.

Anyhoo a few new pots out of the kiln, many of them for orders some from Spring Fling and some for the shop orders I'm working on.

Splat, and a forceful one at that.

I got really annoyed with myself this afternoon as I started losing handles on dishes and jugs, my own stupid fault too much to do, too little time so not waiting properly for that critical time and trying to "wing it!" I know I know I shouldn't have started decorating them but you know how it is when you're pushed. So when I saw the handle pulling away on this one I picked it up and hurled it. Very satisfying, then calmly threw the rest in the bin, cleaned the floor and went for a ride. I'll remake them tomorrow.

This morning though I was throwing, so much on the to do list it's ridiculous. It's good I know it's good, keeps me busy, keeps Paul in cheese, but at the moment I really want to have a play and I just don't have time. Anyway I need one bowl this size, they're three pound weight and it's just a pleasant size to throw, but liked it so much, the clay was right, the shapes just felt good and I could have made them all morning but I had to stop at three and get on with the other things. It felt damn good though.

This afternoon saw me and my pal Phil, above, driving through glorious sunshine and then torrential rain to visit our friend Linda who we are having a joint show with in August. August, did I just type that? Oh well it's not like another deadline will make any difference. We had a good chat and a catch up, Linda is about to embark on a new and exciting venture, I'm very jealous!

Linda's house is full of my pots! She was buying them even before she met me and still buys them now even though she knows what I'm really like. I think this jug was the first thing she bought but the house is full of them, I wouldn't like to hazard a guess at how many there are but more than there are of mine in my house for sure. We swapped a set of dinner plates for a quilt a few years back. I love the swapping game, blooming marvelous.

On another note, thanks for all the fabulous responses yesterday, all very heartfelt maybe we need to do some more educating of what we do. The bit that I failed to mention though is that the comment came from someone within the arts sector as a practitioner and working within an arts centre. Makes you wonder doesn't it.

To make a mug

Recently someone came into the workshop and picked up a mug, said it was nice but then told me that £20 was too much to charge for a mug. I think I might have mentioned it on here at the time. Anyway today I was throwing mugs and I got to thinking about why they are £20 and whether it was justified so here is what I thought about making a humble mug.

Where do you start? With beginning to learn to throw? Or with the ordering of clay? Clay that you've tried and tested previously and know will do what you want it to do? Well lets assume the clay is already delivered and a ton of it is stacked away in the barn awaiting transformation. So you open the bag and find that it isn't the right consistency so either wedge it with some reclaim to soften it or leave it soaking in wet rags for a few days until it is at suitable mug throwing hardness. OK so knead it, weigh it, knock it into balls, to put it simply and because I haven't got all night then you centre it, pull it up, belly it out, finish the rim, wire it off and remove it from the wheel. Leave it to dry to leather hard and then put it back on the wheel to turn a foot ring which I know isn't essential but I happen to like one on this particular mug shape. Pull the handles, a few extra just in case, let them toughen for a couple of hours, put the mug on the banding wheel, score it, slurry it and join the handle checking the size and shape and straightness and join and general look at the same time.

Oh and all this while keeping an eye on it making sure at every stage that it isn't too wet or too dry you know just having a quick feel each time you pass the shelves.

Let the body and the handle firm up together, probably overnight but in the summer they may need wrapping in plastic overnight to let the two parts even out. When the whole is leather hard, touch, check, touch, check again, stir a bucket of slip - previously weighed, soaked and sieved twice, dip the mug in the slip, shake off the excess, brush a swish of slip on the bottom. Mug heads back to the banding wheel to be decorated using a pre mixed and filled slip trailer with a design that may be completely individual or one developed for a range, trail the design into the wet slip, lift the mug, put it back on the shelf. Keep checking just in case the handle decides to part company with the body if you got the timing just a little out. When it's back to leather hard sgraffito signature into the slip brushed on the base and then leave it to dry- anything from a couple of days to a couple of weeks depending on the weather.

Once dry check the mug for any sneaky burrs or other such problem that may need dealing with. place in the kiln with many other pots working the kiln pack jigsaw puzzle as you go. All this and at this point it's nothing more than dry mud, add water and that's what you'll have left.

So kiln packed, slow rise in temperature letting the chemically combined water be driven off safely at around 600 degrees then up to 950 which takes around 15 hours in my kiln. Slow cool over a couple of days back to room temperature.

They survived? Good next stage, dust it, wax the foot ring, stir the glaze oh yes you got it already mixed and soaked and sieved at least twice, dip the mug and set to dry just the minute or so this time, wipe the foot ring, touch up where you held it and back into the kiln again. This pack though being more careful not to let the pots be close enough to kiss, and not too dense a pack and not having pots too near the elements. Up we go again to 1055 with an hours soak at the top and slowly slowly down again, a couple of days cooling and unpack the mug.

Finally you get to see if it has made it, is the glaze fully melted? Is it shiny? Smooth? Still on the pot? Not boiled? No debris dropped and stuck in it?

If it got through all that and I'm happy with it and it will work, it will hold liquid, you can hold it comfortably, drink from it and it looks good - marvelous!

And someone has the cheek to tell me my mugs are too expensive!

Today's mission. . .

To have fewer pots under plastic at the end of the day that at the beginning, as simple as that.

Some in the sun to dry, and some clay to dry in preparation for glaze mixing tomorrow.

Some slipped and tasty looking.

Mission accomplished! Still more to do but it's better than it was.

Sunny day bright flowers

Phil and Louise and the boys brought me these flowers the other day when they visited. They've been beautiful today.

It's been a very busy day. Trying to get lots of things to a point where they will keep over the weekend though I think I will probably go into work on sunday at some point. Threw a whole lot of oval dishes, turned and slipped the outsides of some of those big bowls from the other day. Unpacked a bisque, glazed it all and repacked and got the kiln on. I only just had enough glaze which is frustrating so though I'd get some soaking straight away but didn't have enough dry clay to weigh out for it. Grrrr, even more frustrating. So clay is drying out now so that I can hopefully mix it early next week.

Hazel's lilies, beautiful aren't they. She has a way with plants that I do not have at all. The first thing being that she remembers to water them while I often forget, if I could do that I think my fingers would seem distinctly more green.