News, Exciting News

Sorry about the poor quality of the video, I am a bit excitable and it's a crazy windy day again here. More about the exciting news when I get back from my trip to London and Ceramics in the City. I can't show you the inside of the new workshop yet as it's not mine just yet but I will as soon as I can and on my train journey tomorrow I may well be planning where to put what and what I can fill up the extra space with...

Till the next time feel free to be excited and giddy with me and pop into the Geffrye Museum if you are in the Shoreditch area at the weekend. After that I am staying in London to give Amanda a bit of a hand at Origin which is at Old Spittalfields Market from 23rd to 29th September, it is a contemporary craft fair with an incredible range of makers and the competition to get a place is pretty damn tough so well done to Amanda for getting a place two years running.

Monday Wild and Windy and Wet Day

Well yesterday was summer and over night it turned to autumn. It's been a wild day out there in the world. I've really just been sorting pots for Ceramics in the City and getting things finished so that I can leave them merrily drying while I'm away. I need to remember to pack my slip trailers in the box though so that I have them for the demo, what on earth would I do without them?

Tomorrow I shall tell you something that is very very exciting to me. Stay tuned for that...

This weeks things

I need to pack up my pots for Ceramics in the City over the next day or so. I do like this show, not least because it means I get to see my friend Annabel again who very kindly lets me stay at their house for the duration of the show, and lets me have my boxes couriered to her house as well so that I can sit on the train and not have the hassle of driving down to London. What a gem she is, I do like that she shows me great places in the city too that I probably wouldn't find on my own, and we have a good time together. I'm looking forward to seeing her again.
This year I have been asked to do a demo at the show, this is not something I am used to really but something I probably need to get more accustomed to. It's 45minutes and I can do a slide show or a talk or demo or a combination of that. I am hoping to manage to get some sort of slide show together and then I am hoping that I will be able to throw something once I get down there that I can slip and decorate during the demo. I do need to get my head around that a bit more before I go. Any advice / thoughts / suggestions gratefully received.

As I say demonstrating is something I do need to get used to as I have just been asked to be one of the three demonstrators at the Scottish Potters Association annual workshop weekend at Kindrogan for 2011. It's very scary, I've attended the event for the last four years or so and my goodness there have been some crackers demonstrating, the likes of Ruthanne Tudball, Mike Dodd, Richard Godfrey and then in the slipware vein for the last two years we have had Doug Fitch and Paul Young, hmmm, no need to worry, not that those two create one hell of an act to follow for anyone making slipware. Gulp! I think I'm different enough to be able to give the members something new to see there. It's very very nice to be asked to do it, I only hope that I can do them justice. Plenty of time to practise for that one though, it's not until March.

A big thank you to Kathy Niblett, editor of the CPA News who popped this little piece in the latest edition of the newsletter. Those jugs are turning up all over the place, just goes to show what a difference having good images makes.

This week I sent off on it's merry little way the slip trail jug that I decorated with the apple eating dragon and the Funny Little People, it is as we speak winging it's way to Minnesota, in fact I have just tracked the parcel and it is at the depot as you weren't in when they tried to deliver it Lloyd. How incredible is that? It was collected from me at 4pm on wednesday and it was delivered yesterday in the middle of America. Fantastic service.

That reminds me the second parcel did indeed turn up in Inverness the very next day - phew!

Finally, does anyone else have a thing sometimes were comments are left on your blog and you get an email telling you that it's there and then you go to it and it's not there? I have one a week or so ago on an old post from May or so and I went to respond to it but something distracted me and then when I went back the second time it wasn't there anymore. Very odd I thought.

Right that's all from me for the minute, have a good weekend all.

Wednesday

For those fellow addicts out there here's another fresh slip pic for you to lust over.

I received this flier through the post this afternoon, opened it up and thought hey I know who made that, it's Jim's pot.

Open it up and there's a great poster which has a certain Ron Philbeck in the exhibition too, well done the both of you.

Humbug Jugs

A slip trailing day today, here's a couple of freshly slipped beasts for your enjoyment. I know I post pictures of fresh slip time and again but nothing beats it.

There is so very much going on at the moment and a few decisions to be made that I will be trying to sort out over the next week or so. I have to get the last few pots for Ceramics in the City glazed and into the kiln tomorrow then I can pack them all up over the weekend for their trip to London.

I sent two boxes of pots up to Just Art in Fochabers yesterday and for the first time ever with my couriers, only one has arrived. I shall be chasing that up tomorrow straight away, fingers crossed.

Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair

The new website for the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair is now live, listing all the many and varied exhibitors and details of how to find the show and how to book tickets. It's whizzing up fast so get it booked in your diary for a trip to Manchester. Myself and Amanda Simmons will both be there.

Friday Sunny Day

I love this picture. It reminds me of a photo I have somewhere of a group of wonky but very old jugs of similar shape to this that are all leaning in random directions. Amanda pointed out that she couldn't believe I could happily leave all these on that shelf and that it was bending sightly. She may have a point. I happily made these earlier in the week but they may have been the cause of the discomfort later. Today I have happily made blackberry muffins, last week it was currant buns, but this week the first pickings from the road sides here have been muffinised. Hmm, just trying one, not bad, a bit denser than I might have liked but quite tasty.

It's been a corker of a week here, while NC and it's coastal neighbours were waiting for Hurricane Earl and NZ has been wobbling with an earthquake, south west Scotland has been positively basking in the sunshine. Wonderful weather, September has been like this for the past few years. Today we had a 'sod it' day and we cycled down into town this afternoon, bought ice-creams and sat in the park by the side of the loch to eat them. Very pleasant indeed.

Yikes!

Well you remember that there list that I posted the other day. Well now I am well down the second page, all of a sudden the world has gone crazy for my pots. It's wonderful but a bit scary, I need to get everything sorted into a sensible making list now. Unfortunately after a great day throwing the other day I'm now paying for it with the pain again. Oops. Steady on H. I am looking forward to getting all these pots made and out, there are some really great places wanting them, I'll fill you in when they get there.
This sgraffito thistle bowl is fairly new, I don't think I've posted it before, Phil McMenemy took the photo for me, it looks at home against that lovely wall. I've been playing with the thistles - ouch - for a while but I think that it has started to come together better in this bowl, there are two similar ones and I'm very pleased with them.
I'm going to do just a half a day at work tomorrow, I know crazy when I've got orders coming out of my ears, but the weather is incredible at the moment and Paul has time off work this week so I think we should make the most of it before the winter appears from out of nowhere. So that's my plan, then the weekend will be spent sorting out what to take to Stranraer on Sunday to the Food and Fine Craft fair at Lochinch, more details in the previous post. Do come and say hello to us.