Just ignore the hat and look at the bricks.

They are all now still at Jason's but they are all outside the shed and palletted up and ready for lift off. Time for a soak in the bath after moving nigh on 1000 bricks individually today.

Oh Yeah Oh Yeah First Fresh Pots Of The Year

Pie dishes were decorated this morning in a simplistic manner. There's nowt like stating the obvious is there.

A couple of vase forms that I made this week, there is a third one but I've not finished it yet. The combey though the wet slip one was following on from a little mug I decorated a week or so ago that I just had out of the glaze firing, I liked it with the dots in dots around it. It's on a bit bigger scale here.

First finished pots of the year. This is the harvest jug, I should measure how much liquid it'll hold out of interest. It's a good 'un I think, I like it certainly.

This one I rather like too though it's belly does sag a little maybe but I like it all the same.

Ha ha! Sweet little mug. Awhhhh.

The black slip sgraffitoed through to white slip and showing a bit of body through as well. Now this I will most certainly be doing again. Watch this space.

And a little bit of mad craziness to end with.

Different Day.

Well well well. That was on eye opener! Yesterday Amanda came over to my workshop armed with some fused glass sheets in "challenging colours" and her engraving tool. We have been talking for a while about having a chance to work in mediums other than our own. I'm always itching to try other things even though clay is my obsession, I'm always keen to find out how other people do their thing. I've tried my hand at a few things over the years, I've always sewn and knitted and textiles was my subject up to 'A' Level at school. At uni I did a little bit of forged metal work, some jewellery, lots of wood work and none of it of too amazing quality but it's good to try these things. I'd like to revisit the metal I think at some point too. Anyway what I didn't ever do at uni was glass even though we had a glass department there, not sure why, I might come to think of it have been a little scared of the tutor.

I don't generally find myself attracted to glass work, I'm not into shiny glass, I don't know why, I wouldn't be able to explain it but it just doesn't grab me you know what I mean? Anyhow this all fell by the wayside when I came across Amanda's glass. I love it! I think it's very very different to anything I have come across before and I know that no small part of it is the feel of the finished surface, she sand blasts most of here work and it makes the surface somehow less in your face and more ceramic like.

So Amanda let me lose on the glass with her little whizzy roundy diamond tipped tools. Essentially it's exactly like sgraffito in that there are different layers of colour and if you scratch deep enough you cut through one layer to reveal another. With one HUGE exception! It requires a lot of force. I have glass engravers upper arm today. Blimey, it's slower and noisier than sgraffito too. Having said that by the end of the day I was starting to get into it. I hadn't really any idea how I was going to start so I just fiddled around a bit with some lines and marks trying out the different tool heads and then I used a couple of the patterns that I play with on my pots from time to time. It's very different too in that I couldn't draw any of the tight curves that I use so much in the decoration of my pots.

So these little tiles that I engraved yesterday Amanda has taken home with her and is going to slump them for me which will, well actually we're not quite sure what it will do to the marks but hopefully they'll stretch and distort a little.

So I had made some tiles for Amanda to use, and some flat dishes and a jug. Some I'd slipped and let get to leatherhard and some were freshly slipped. It was so so interesting to watch what someone would produce who knows only a little of the history of the whole slipware tradition and who doesn't really know what you are and aren't "supposed" to do. Talk about an eye opener!

Singing the praises of little wooden sticks!

How fab is this jug! Amanda kept saying she didn't want to spoil it but look what she's done with it! Kitchen utensils and cacti! It's fantastic. I tried this layer of black slip over layer of white slip and sgraffito through thing on a little mug last week which I have just gotten out of the kiln and it's great. Makes for three layers of colour and it adds a lot of depth. I like it a lot.

Anyhow we both I think really enjoyed the day and plan to continue this little project. It'd be good to keep it as something we go back to every few weeks and work some more on. I've never really worked in any sort of collaborative way before but I think I'm going to like it.

Browsing my collection.

Feeling a bit poorly today, asthma playing silly beggars and I've acquired a nasty cough. So to cheer myself up I'm spending the evening browsing my collection of things that make me drool.

I have to say that this is my virtual collection, none of it is really mine.

Mad trees and even madder sheep.

Unpacked the first bisque firing of the year this morning and most of it is merrily making it's way up to glaze temperature as we speak. It'll be great to have some new pots and they are almost all completely new pots too though where on earth I am going to put them I do not know as the workshop is pretty full at the moment. I'll have to make some space somewhere.

A while ago, before Christmas I lost one of my little plastic tools that I use to cut into the bottom edge of pots when I'm throwing. Today I was wedging up some reclaim and I found it. I had figured that's where it would be. Glad it's back.

I threw some new pots this afternoon, some vase shapes but I forgot to photograph them and anyway they don't look like much at the moment, they hopefully will be better once they are decorated. Sgraffitoed this fat bellied jug too this afternoon, my trees seem to get progressively madder.

It's not very clear in the photo as it was getting dark, but that made me jump even more when I pootled around the corner with thoughts of a hot bath and a cup of tea to find myself slap bang in the middle of a flock of flustered fluffy flipping sheep. Now meeting the odd one or two is quite normal but tonight I have no idea how many there were, 30 maybe, loads anyway. They were not happy with me being there and some scooted over the dyke before I could get my camera out, knocking down a huge pile of the stones as they went. They were even less impressed as at that point a car arrived from each direction and chaos ensued. I tucked myself into the wall and tried not to get trampled and squashed.

Wildness with pink and fluffyness.

Wild weather, fantastic big sea over at Gatehouse this morning. Lovely. Could have stood and watched it all day but unfortunately a Scout leaders meeting was waiting.

As for pink and fluffy, this little hat and jacket couldn't be much more pink and fluffy if it tried. It is not I hasten to add in my size. Phew! It's a little something I have been knitting for my friend Emma's little baby. I shall get it wrapped up and posted this week. It's as fluffy as something that is really really soft and fluffy. I'm almost jealous, it'd be lovely to sleep in, soft so so soft.

Look what I found on my way to work...

... Mr. Young, potter extraordinaire walking Storm his dog down my road. Fancy that!

Some decorating today of the sgraffito style. Thistles, very Scottish, I wasn't intending to be but I think I like them actually, not sure where they came from. Lodged deep in my brain somewhere obviously. I packed my kiln today for a bisque firing, the first firing this year. I'd better get back into this getting things fired lark.

The little film was taken a couple of days ago from the workshop door. Noisy noisy hail stone. Love it!

Do they do the trousers in pink or the boots with a kitten heel?

Big yellow monster hiding behind a tree.

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Snowdrops and snowflakes

Snowdrops are out at work, must be spring time soon.

This morning I was struggling a bit without the electrickery being on, tried working by candle-light but it was still too dark and damn cold and no kettle so no tea so blimey that makes for a tough day. I'd just decided to give up and come home, had got my coat on and the keys in my hand and buzz - ping hey presto power! We had mores now this morning but again it didn't stick.

So this afternoon I managed to slip all the wee fat pots and I threw a couple of bits and pieces too.

Dodgy photos though, must have still been shivering when I took them.

For those of you worried I might be getting a bit too girly in my old age I'll get a new pic up for you soon with my new outfit that will put all your minds at rest. Till then, taraa.

Slippy slushy day.

Thick rain this morning, made for a chilly slightly damp ride to work. By the time I got there it had become proper snow but the ground is so wet that it didn't stick. Lots of snow on the hills though.
Slipped this jug this morning, I wanted something simple to put on it. The second one of these I have also slipped white but am leaving to to dry to do some sort of sgraffito design on it.

On Sunday I was lured into helping construct a horse lantern for a big lantern parade taking place in Dumfries this weekend "Burns Light" celebrating the 250th anniversary of Robert Burns' birth. "Neigh!" I hear you cry but yes indeed I was. It's a horse as our village used to hold an annual horse fair that people travelled to from far and wide.

It was fun, it has been made by the village youth group and Lizzie and a few keen adults helpers too. It'll look great once it's lit up though unfortunately we're not allowed to use real candles in there, health and safety you know!

Petroglyphs and partys.

My friend Phil or "flame haired Phil" as he has been called recently by a local magazine has started a blog. Go see it, it's bound to be observational, funny, sarcastic and obscure at times. He's a brilliant photographer who lives just up the road in Laurieston.

We went out last night to a friend's 5oth birthday party and a very nice bash it was too. Get this . . . for the second time in a week I wore a skirt ta daaaa! Anyway while I was there I learnt a lot about concrete and making foundations. Not what I had expected to learn but very useful all the same.

Petroglyphs, these are in Utah. I like them.

Fruity Friday

Handles on the two medievally inspired jug things that I failed to out lips on. I was too intent on throwing them to remember to do that the other day. Anyway I quite like them as they are.


A rack of shelves semi-full of pots, eeee that feels better. Thanks for all the encouragement over the last couple of weeks. A dozen or so of those fat squared bowls, some at the same size as the ones I made last year and some from 1lb of clay so a little smaller.

Finished the decoration of the jug. The lettering reads

"Work like you don't need the money,

Love like you've never been hurt,

Dance like nobody's watching,

Sing like nobody's listening,

Live like it's heaven on earth."

That's how I found it anyway but I think it would read much better with four lines rather than the five but they are all fantastic sentiments so they stayed.

Oops!

Paul and I think Doug along with probably many other people that know me will be able to confirm that my most uttered word is probably "oops!" For any number of reasons, oops I just walked into the door, oops I fell off the bed, oops I dropped my book in the bath, oops my foot slipped off the bike pedal and it rammed into my shin, oops I just spilt hot tea down me, oops I didn't mean to stand on your toe when I came for a cuddle (the last one familiar only to Paul.)

Anyway in my lack of being able to concentrate state one day last week I made myself a cup of tea in the afternoon, took the teabag out on the tea spoon, put the milk into the mug, threw the mug and its contents of freshly brewed tea into the bin in the kitchen and took the spoon with the teabag balanced on it into the workshop and sat down at my desk.

Oops.

The really scary thing is. . . I've done that before!

Oops.

PS I didn't break those pots in the picture.

Slipped mugs

All the mugs got decorated today. Rules: they had to be quick and there couldn't be any two the same. I think I managed to obey them.

This one above had a layer of white slip and then a layer of black when the first was leather hard. I was trying to sgraffito through the black to show the white. I couldn't manage it with my pointy tool that I usually draw with, I think I may have over blasted the black layer so it was maybe a touch on the dry side. However the loop tool worked well and I think I may have another go with that on a bigger surface. Seems to be a very exact amount of pressure required to go deep enough but not to far, if that makes sense.

I started to sgraffito the harvest jug that was left standing but as usual got completely carried away and haven't done half of the surface yet. I've wrapped it back up for another day.

Just noticed I did a white mug with the same decoration as a black one only in reverse! Oops, failed my own test!

Ha ha some pots!

I pulled some handles on the mugs that I had thrown yesterday. Some are better than others, I don't seem to have got the delicateness of handle that I was aiming for but I think for this shape these are better than the sort that I put on my other mugs ie part pulled on the pot rather than pulled and then stuck on.

I threw a copy of big "things" they are allegedly coming from a fab website I found last night which is for the Museum of London. I saw some medieval jugs, beauties they were, I don't do them justice here but I think I will have another go, it took me 6 attempts to get these two. I was struggling with the inward curve a the bottom of them.

These two pics (above and below) are from the one jug, when I got in this morning one of the harvest jugs I had slipped to sgraffito had acquired a split in it's belly so I cut it in half to have a look at the walls. Anyway then I took the opportunity to play on the surface of the two halves that I was no longer at all precious about. I like the comby thing that I used. An orange plastic thing I bought ages ago because it looked useful!

Off out for a meal tonight with other members of the Spring Fling committee, so I've had to wash and get a bit spruced up for the occasion. It's hard work when you don't do it very often, anyway it's not quite a ball gown Ron but tis a skirt none the less. Crikey that'll surprise them, bet they didn't know I had legs. They may all be put off their meals though. Oops.

Off we jolly well go.

I threw some mugs this morning, I've been meaning to make some for years based on the Cistercian pots I remember seeing at college. I think I did try at college probably with dire results and then I vaguely visited them when I was at Doug's last year so here is my newest attempt. They're not as elegant as the ones that I have seen but then I'm not the most elegant potter I have ever seen and I have been told that potters make pots like themselves. I don't know what that means for me though Amanda did say that one of the plates I had on display at her exhibition summed me up, it was a fat mad bird. I have to add that she said she did remove the "fat" adjective.
I think I might use the rules of quick decoration and no two the same again for these ones, that'll get me thinking properly again. Speaking of Mr Fitch I had a good natter and a moan to him today, thanks, cheered me up no end, spouting a bit of random drivel does you the world of good. If you don't know his work, go and have a look, he has been making some pots recently that are delicious they make me very jellyhouse.

Three fat jugs have been under plastic for what feels like months. I slipped two to sgraffito and this one, well who knows what happened to that but at least I was doing something. I think it is vaguely from some pictures of old pots I was looking at last night but I wouldn't be able to tell you what or where.

So my new kiln, I had been going to use a bit of space a hundred or so metres from the workshop but I had a chat to Alan today and he suggested this space. It would mean more preparation to the ground than the other space but this is far more sheltered so I would need to build less of a shed and to take this picture I was leaning against the back wall of my workshop. Much nearer, so less distance to carry the pots. A tree or two may have to be sacrificed but they will be well used for the cause in the end.