Home again.

Firstly I would like to say that I have just heard the sad news that Simon Carroll has died after being very poorly. I didn't know the man at all but I have seen him demonstrate which was quite a thing, so very unlike anything I have ever done or could ever be inventive enough to think of doing with red clay and slip. I also saw this funny funny event happen at Aberystwyth Ceramics Festival a few years ago and ever since I've been on the look out for a bald fella who'd be prepared to have a pot thrown on his head. Do spend the time to watch the film of the beach drawings on his web site too. His obituary is here.


My week has been a bit of a wobbly mess really. The picture above sort of illustrates what I've spent most of it doing so far, trying to get suppliers and banks and other folks on the phone to talk sense to me and not tell me I'm stupid for trying to order something just because they would usually sell it in 10kg bags and I was asking for half a ton. Honestly did he really think he was going to get my business after that? And the quote he gave me NOT including carriage was twice that of Valentines Clays which DID include carriage, and his was only to come from Dumfries. Me thinks he was trying to pull a fast one hoping that the silly woman on the end of the phone would fall for it. Sometimes it makes me so mad! As for the bank and the money that wandered off in between coming out of a galleries account back in August and not ever finding it's way into my account so far well don't get me started.

So Ceramics in The Round, well what can I say? Lovely place, lovely people, very very helpful friendly organisers, great to see Doug and to spend some time with Sabine too. Dave and Sue you two are brilliant, thank you so much for your hospitality. My sales were not quite enough for me to retire on shall we say, hell you win some you lose some. I did meet some great folk though, some blog lurkers - hi to you all and to the new commenters on the blog and I met some lovely potters of course. Above picture for Dan, in the centre is Toff Milway who is a wonderful chap, full of the most ridiculously amazingly well told and leaving you wanting more stories and tales from his years of potting.

My 6 set of plates.

My big bowl in the dome.

The dome itself.

PS Doug I think that's the last three issues of CPA news we've both managed to get a name check in, new one's just out.

New pots quickly.

Unpacked the kiln this morning quickly as I had to be off elsewhere all day but I also had to pack up the high heels and handbags plate to be couriered this morning too. Here's a shot of the whole kiln load.

Here's the big jug, it needs it's stilts grinding off yet before I can take it with me tomorrow.

This is the plate that I swiped the springy rubber tool through the slip of.

Here's one of the set of six, I am still to see what it looks like all together.

Off tomorrow to Buxton, Ceramics in the Round in case you have forgotten, half packed and still half not packed. Hope it'll be a good un. See you next week.

Oh me oh my

What is a girl to do when the local Co-op shop don't have any empty banana boxes for her to pack her pots in?

This lamp shade is rather amazing isn't it, found it on the google image search. You can get them here. Made out of, you guessed it, banana boxes!

I do so love banana boxes.

Ceramics In The Round.

This weekend there will be a possy of potters gathering at The Devonshire Dome in Buxton in Derbyshire for Ceramics in the Round. Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th from 10 until 4.30pm. So if you are in the area pop in and have a look, there will be some great potters there and a good variety of work so something for everyone.

Exhibitors include Mark Griffiths, David and Margaret Frith (looking forward to sticking my head in a large David Frith jar over the weekend Dave - it was his wasn't it?) Toff Milway, Josie Walter, Dylan Bowen, Paul Young, Beverley Gee and some fella called Doug Fitch.

Beautiful salt glaze jug by Mark Griffiths. I have a lovely jug of Mark's which I really enjoy.

A big fat Doug jug which may or may not be actually at the show, you'll have to go and have a look for yourselves won't you! I'm looking forward to the show, it'll be good to catch up with my potter friends again.

Who's a naughty girl?

What a weekend and more of beautiful weather. I am not used to all this sunshine, as you can tell by the fact that my usual face full of freckles has turned into a face full of freckle. We went down to Manchester this weekend to a surprise 30th birthday party for my friend Rick in the pic below. I used to work in an outdoor shop with Rick in Manchester many years ago while I was at uni and it was yours truly who introduced him to the lovely Emma who he has been with for ten years now which he takes great pleasure in reminding me and which I take great pleasure in having done.
We popped into Manchester City Art Gallery while we were there so as I could dose up on my Toft platter fix. There are a couple in there on display, one with oak leaves to die for. Paul bagged his first two Tofts, so to speak, he'd never seen any in the flesh before.

We had a day out at Lyme Park on the sunday with Rick and Emma and Caro and Graeme which was great as we don't see much of them these days. Nice to do it in the sunshine too.

Oh yes I'm a naughty girl too because I just had the afternoon off work. I don't do that very often at all but me and Paul were talking about how little we got away together last summer and so decided that if it's a nice afternoon we will occasionally say "sod it" and go off an do something. So we went out cycling which was great and which I haven't done other than to go to work since way before Christmas before I hurt my knee. It was very pleasant indeed. We shall do that again.

For those of you that remember Alan at Argyll Pottery up near Oban you will be pleased to hear if you don't know already, that Nicola who works there alongside Hugh has started a blog. Find it here. Hugh has been quietly working away there by himself all winter but is not at all a computer type of man but now Nic is back there for the summer I think and has started up a blog. It's good to hear again what's happening up in that neck of the woods.

Big Jim

It was Big Jim that turned up yesterday as my knight in shining red paint work to deliver my pallets of bricks. It's only taken twelve months to solve that little problem. He was obviously keen to do the job as you can tell if you look closely at the sign in his windscreen, obviously loves his pots. Thanks Jim, you did a great job, if I ever need to move bricks again I know who to ring.

I couldn't leave the set of plates alone and had to add a sgraffito border to them.

What a fantastic surprise!

I love trees.

These are all photos from the weekend, yes that blue sky is in Scotland!

Easter Weekend of Sunshine

This photo is not a result of me and my chainsaw running amok. It was like that when I got there - honest! It's at Dumfries House up in Cumnock, we went over on saturday on the glorious sunshine, driving over the beautiful wildness that is the Galloway / Ayrshire border. Amazing house, full of Chippendale furniture and original mid 18th Century Axminster carpets. The grounds are spectacular too, lots of big big trees, oh I love big big trees. I confess I did cuddle a few.

A beautiful big old horse chestnut in the grounds. I love those branches that almost touch the floor but the lift off again.

Massive trees lining the drive up to the house.

On sunday I popped into the workshop for a little while and did a bit of faffing and decorated a jug. I've been looking at the one in the photo here for ages, it's in a beautiful book of Staffordshire slipware. I only went back to it after I had finished the jug but I can see what I'd been thinking about before I decorated it.

I went for just white slip on the black and though it looks quite busy on the front, the back may come as a surprise to you.

Ta daaa! I like it and that surprises me!

Today was another amazing day, the whole weekend has been sunny and fabulous. I had this set of plates to wander my slip trailer across.

White background.

Black outlines.

Cobalt leaves. It's not often that I have a problem with the slip drying out too quickly while I am working on something.

The film is just a wee quickie on the footpath round the corner here behind the house.

And finally . . . If I had a record player I would be bidding on this just for the utter crazy amazingness of it. You don't see these every day.

Wierd dreams and muesli pots.

Last night I had a dream, odd dreams are not uncommon in my head, this was very odd though. I dreamt the kiln was built and packed and had been fired and it was time to unpack the first firing. First we had to undo the drawer in the chimney - ? and take out all the broken pots in there, of course that's where they all accumulate isn't it. Then there was a steel lid that was hoisted off the kiln which revealed the brick work, and then it was big enough to stand up in inside, there were two or three people in there unpacking it and the shelves were sort of library shelves with aisles in between wide enough to walk down. It was enormous! Full of pots, some were mine but only about 5% of the total, all the broken ones in the chimney drawer were mine though. There were Paul Young's pots, Doug's pots, Ron's pots, some of Matt's slabbed dishes, some old Wedgewood things, some Japanese teapots, you know every range of possible ceramic work of wildly varying temperature and clay and finish but of course as it is in dream world all fired in the same kiln at the same time.
The thing that really confused me though was that around the back of one of the sets of shelves there was an entire living room, settees and coffee table and rug in front of the fire and I was baffled (ha ha baffle, no kiln pun intended) as to whether or not there was a wall built between this room and the chamber during the firing and if there wasn't and I could see no sign of where said bricks would be if there was indeed a wall then how on earth did the person sitting in there with the cat not get far too hot?

Anyway despite the bizarre dream I had a great day today, very quiet at work, so I just got on with stuff, lots of plates for my next tree plate set, and a big pot that has been ordered for a muesli pot, it is huge! I hope the lid fits and I really hope it survives. I finished sorting out all the pots and stand furniture that I had taken with me and the place is tidied up and ready to go again.

If you hadn't guessed, this is the sweet wee teapot that I swapped with Sally Raven the other day. Tis a little darling isn't it. Look at it's lovely bottom.

I've got all these new pots that I would love to have made to take to Buxton but I was just working out today just how tall an order that is as they would have to be in for a bisque by friday next. Hmmm, well if it's sunny next week it might just happen. Fingers crossed for a sunny week.

Thursday that feels like Friday

I'm all messed up with what day of the week it is, yesterday felt like monday and today feels like friday so where my head is I have no idea. I had a minor panic this afternoon realising that my plan to go to the bank and post office etc tomorrow, once I'd worked out what day it really was, wouldn't work as it's a bank holiday tomorrow so no go at the PO. So I had to quickly gather my things and go and run into town to catch up with myself.
Thanks for the comments after my duff fair. Just as an extra, it is a show that I have done before and last year went pretty damn well, the contrast between this year and last is quite incredible. The show is only for work hand made in Britain, no mass production or imports. The quality in general was I thought pretty exceptional, one or two of the stands maybe a little less so but mostly wonderful work and not necessarily for the gift market, a lot of work which borders on the fine art category really.
Next up for me is Ceramics in the Round at Buxton which is a lovely little town. I'm hoping to take the tree plates but need to work out how to be able to hang them without having a wall behind my stand. I might have to try to fashion something. Hmmm, a couple of weeks to work on that one though. I'm looking forward to that one, will get to see some friends again and hopefully sell some pots.

Home sweet home.

Here I am home again and it's been wild and raining all day after I've been stuck inside for the last four days while it's been gloriously sunny! Sod's law I suppose. Well I am as always glad to be home, it was a tough few days. Obviously honey and black slip trailed functional pots were not on the want list for any of the galleries visiting the show. I felt very disheartened over the event and it's really hard to keep up the interest and enthusiasm and the smile when you don't feel like you are getting any response, positive or otherwise from visitors. I was pleased though to see that people were placing orders with other exhibitors which gave me hope after all the dire news that the radio and newspapers pump out daily. There was money being spent though people reported that sales were less than they would have hoped for but it wasn't all doom and gloom. So there is hope!

I have come home without any orders as yet though whether things come on in the future you never can tell. I'd hoped I might attract a few new galleries too. What the upside of that is though that I now have more time to be making new things hopefully without having too many deadlines up close. I am going to work toward having a good body of new work to go and get photographed properly before the summer. I need some good new images of new work and get some new cards printed and the website is currently being updated with some new things but there is more that needs doing.

So tomorrow I'll unpack all the things that I took and get them all stashed away safely, Amanda is going to bring them all over tomorrow as we travelled down together in her handy car/van. Today I was doing mainly thinking and a few phone calls and turning those plates from last week and then I threw a big bowl just because I could!

BCTF

Well day one over and done with. Amanda and me are sat sitting in the front room of the flat we have rented drinking tea and pulling apart the days happenings or in my case the days none happenings. It's good having brought the wee computer with me as I can keep a check on what my blogging pals are up to and not feel I'm missing out.

A couple of shots of my stand which is a lot less cluttered than last year. I have gone for less is more, less pots, giving them all more space. I've brought more of the more individual pieces and I am quite pleased with how it looks. I don't seem to have grabbed anybodies attention yet but it is early days still.

Amanda's stand is next to mine and is utterly fabulous, it really is well displayed and the work is tremendous. It is by far the best work I have ever seen of hers and I love her work already. I only have this one picture but believe you me the whole set up is beautiful. It is being very well received too and rightly so.

These pots above are by Sally Raven, and I have been looking forward to seeing these pots for a long while. Sally is based in North Wales and graduated last year. Her pots are thrown and anagama fired in her beautiful kiln. Sally was a student helper at ClayArt Wales two years ago and it was all down to her that weekend that I didn't run away in sheer terror and despair bless her. She said she was nervous about me seeing her pots! No need for that at all. They are great too and I will certainly be buying one or more from her before the end of the show.

I've met lots of lovely exhibitors, it's always good to meet other people in the creative field I also met John Foley from the Imagine Gallery. It was good to meet him after speaking to him on the phone in the past and I know he reads the round of blogs.

Not so sunny day.

On my way home I came across the scene above, dropped my bike at the gate and headed into the freshly ploughed field. I had been meandering around for a while staring at the floor and randomly bending down to pick up bits from the ground when a voice shouted "Oy get out of there!" Thankfully it was just Paul who had gone out for a ride and spotted my bike abandoned. He seemed to think it odd that I was trawling an essentially muddy field. I did find some clay but no pieces of pottery. I will have a word with the farmer next door and see if he minds me having a few spade fulls of clay out of his field next week.

So tomorrow early I'm off to the British Trade Craft Fair at Harrogate with Amanda, I have absolutely no idea what this year's fair will bring what with everyone panicking about money at the moment. I spent a little while this afternoon panicking about the fact that I wasn't panicking about anything. I am the queen of panic so there always has to be something to flap about. Well watch this space and I'll let you know how it goes. The place we are staying in has something called WIFI!?! Apparently it mean you can use the internet there so if you're lucky you might get up to date reports from Harrogate. Oh how good am I to you guys?

New pots on show this week at a couple of places, pop in for a look if you are near either of them. Locally to here is the CatStrand in New Galloway, a community arts centre, recently opened and proving very popular. The other is the shop at Newby Hall which is being taken over by the owner of a gallery that I deal with in Ripon and looks like it's going to have some fabulous things in there.

Sunshine all day!

How crazy is that candlestick!?!

Here is the display case that I saw at Paisley museum on monday. These are all Jason's pots and they are over twenty years old now, the puzzle jug at the back says 1981. He won't have had the pottery very long at the point, he'll have been pretty fresh up here from being at Aldermaston Pottery.

Such a beautiful day today that is has been very hard to stay at work. I just wanted to pootle out on my bike but I had so much to get on with before the weekend that I just couldn't. I did sit out in the sun to eat my lunch though and to do some sketches for the plates I had to decorate. I got handles on the one big jug that had somehow managed to escape being handled yesterday. No idea how it hid because it's huge!

I had some plates to slip, this tree one I did using a stolen Doug Fitch trick of wiping through the slip to get that sort of double layer in some places. My slip though was a bit thick and it dried a bit quick in the sun so I don't know how well it will work. Probably not a patch on the afore mentioned Fitch's use of the trick. Anyhow I did that with some slip trailing too. It'll be interesting to see what happens at the very least.

Hmm, shoes and handbags, not my forte, I went through about a dozen different options before I did this one and had two tries on the actual plate which I don't usually allow myself to do.

One for me.

The film a sunny day at Lochdougan.