Earth and Fire Weekend

Well I've been there and done that and now I'm home again. It was Earth and Fire at Rufford Country Park this weekend just gone. It's the first time I've ever had full stand there, I've been on shared stands a couple of times before but this was a first. It was a good show. Great folks around the place, I met lots of people who I've spoken to before either on the phone or via the internet but never met in person, hello to you all, you know who you are. I sold a good amount of pots too which is fab and I hope you are all enjoying your new pots that you all took home. I did a demo to which as per usual frightened the living daylights out of me, I could see two friendly faces that I just concentrated on trying to talk to and I couldn't even try to look at who else was there. I hope it was ok, you never know do you. The thing I didn't do was buy any pots. I was very good and stayed with my stand for the majority of the time except when I managed to borrow other peoples helpers. I did come home with 2 new pots though, a swap with Toff for a new mug and a wee stunner of a slinky jug from Doug. Paul's response to the later was something along the lines of really how many Doug pots do we need?
The rain fell on the set up day but I managed to unload and set up in the dry, it was a chilly night that night but milder the rest of the time and sunday was blisteringly hot!
I do enjoy that chance to spend some time with great friends and new friends. It's fab.

On the way home I stayed with the lovely Michelle Freemantle in the pretty and completely unknown to me East Ridings area of the country. Bless her for taking in a weary fraught potter for the night. There was no way I would have managed to get home in one piece all the way on the sunday night so it was great to break the journey up. That meant that I could also pop into York on the way back to visit the Honest Pots exhibition at York Art Gallery that I have been wanting to get to for ages. It was put together by Alex McErlain (my tutor and now friend from uni) and Helen Walsh who is the Assistant Curator of Decorative Arts there. I spent a few lovely hours wondering around the gallery, it's not a huge gallery but there are plenty lovely pots to drool over. I think I did squeal out loud on one occasion, and there were probably loads of greasy nose marks on the glass cases for the poor cleaners to get rid of.

Back home and straight back into the making list. In the next month I have to:
-finish the work for the "Still Movement" exhibition at Gracefield Arts Centre.
-sort work for Art in Action.
-sort work for Potfest in the Park.
-make my competition piece for Potfest.
-sort work for Art in Clay at Hatfield House.
-finish an order for a gallery.
-finish the last of the Solway Yacht Club prizes.
-complete a few commissions.
-work on a list and sorting glazes for the Phili show.
That's all I can remember for the time being, I hope there's not much more than that. I was hoping to fire the kiln again too but that is not going to happen until August. At least now I have decided that there is one less thing to worry about for the time being at least.
These slabs are part of the work for the Gracefield show....

Earth and Fire Weekend

Earth and Fire, this weekend at Rufford Country Park near Ollerton in Nottinghamshire. The weather forecast says the weather is going to be marvelous if you like to be a little damp so come prepared and then you can still spend time enjoying all the wonderful pots on display.

I finally have some pots out that I am quite pleased with but as always I would like another couple of months to really get the ones that I wanted (and still I'd be wanting more). I really like these two plates, especially the Strange Wading Bird one up the top of the post there. These are both coming with me. I have more pictures somewhere of the pots out last week but I seem to have misplaced them on the computer somewhere. I will have filed them somewhere obscure no doubt. I'll have another look next week.

The back sides of these two plates both have trailed patterns too, there's so much scope there for more decoration, is it silly to just keep on trailing?

Three new big jugs and a wee bundle of smaller ones of these, the 2lb versions that I put on the blog last week sometime.
I managed to walk into the corner of a car door yesterday, I had a proper cartoon egg on my forehead for a while there, now the lump has thankfully gone down a lot but it is slightly blue and if I sit with my head in my hands in mid flap then it flipping hurts and when I put my goggles on to grind the stilts off the pots - ouch! Hopefully by tomorrow it'll not be noticeable at all anymore and if it still is, well I have a lot of hair to cover it with...

New pots and news

More strange wading birds today. It's been another slip fest here today and I am loving it.

I really like this plate above, it's thin white slip and thick white slip and then trailed slip too. Nice looking at this stage.
My trouble is I don't know when to stop. I am finally making some pots that I am excited about again and it is just a matter of days before I have to pack to go to Earth and Fire and I'm making pots that I want to take with me because they are new and exciting to me and so as a result I'll probably do something stupid like blow them up by trying to fire them before they are dry. What I need is time, where can I get some of that? I have so many things that I want to explore and try and do but I never seem to be able to work myself a bundle of time in which to concentrate on doing just that.

This jug below I loved the shape of, he is what the others should have been. However I liked him so much I couldn't work out how to decorate him and ended up just having to do something fast and I fear I messed him up because of that. I was feeling too precious about him.

So my news which I don't think I have told you yet but forgive me if I have is that I am going back to America in November. Who would have thought it? Twice in one year. CraftScotland an organisation who support and promote Scottish craft have been offered space at the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show, here is their news post about the show. Scotland is the guest country at the craft show this year and I have been offered a stand at it. So there you go, Hannah McAndrew does America twice within 6 months. How utterly crazy. How very exciting though, so come and visit if you can, it'd be wonderful to meet some more of you readers over the other side of the pond. I'll have more news about that as it comes along I'm sure so stay tuned.

In the mean time here's the last of the pots for the day, unpacked a glaze kiln this afternoon and straight away filled it with dry pots to bisque. Time time time running away again.

How scary!?!

That is the filter on my dust mask, I took it apart to have a look as I was changing it. Makes you think doesn't it.

Alan brought me a bucket full of a lovely present yesterday. He was amused by how easily pleased I am. A bucket of clay and she's happy as Larry (whoever Larry is but I hear he's a happy chappy). He pulled this out of a field on their farm for me, he tells me there's loads but I can't have any more until after the barley has been cut as it's too heavy to carry from the corner where it is. Anyway this is enough to keep me entertained for the time being.

New crazy bird plate. I like him a lot.

I've been throwing slip around like there's no tomorrow, and the sun is shining finally so things are drying out at a sensible rate, I know that if it gets any warmer I'll be complaining straight away that things are drying too fast next.

Things are moving on a pace with the work I am doing with Phil McMenemy for our exhibition in August. It is going to be called "Still Movement" and will be at Gracefield Arts Centre. You'll get proper pictures once it's up and open but for the time being some more tasters of it.

These dishes are for it...

This is Phil working on it...

A few more pictures of slippy sloppy slip to help you through the day.

These are hopefully for Earth and Fire. Fingers crossed.

June!? Really? Could have fooled me!

"Slip..." has just today closed at the Ruthin Craft Centre in Denbighshire in North Wales. I hadn't ever been to the craft centre before but it's reputation for presenting high quality exciting exhibitions by contemporary craft workers in Britain is second to none. I was pretty dam chuffed to be asked to be a part of the exhibition so when we had the opportunity to visit this week, myself and Amanda it would have been daft to say no. So off we poddled all the way to north wales for the day. Much gossiping and catching up was done on the journey as you can imagine.

"Slip… looks at the diverse styles of makers whose

work falls under the banner of ‘slipware’. This technique is deep rooted within ancient methods of ceramic decoration for example Thomas Toft in the 17th century. Through their skilled use of clays and slips these 21st century artists present a thought-provoking and innovative collection of decorative ceramics.

From traditional approaches to the most modern interpretations, Slip… promises to inform and excite. "

It certainly did both inform and excite me so I hope it did as much for everyone else that saw it. The piece I'd have had had I had the cash and the space in the house and if it hadn't already been sold would have bee the big Dylan Bowen charger that was there. Very lovely piece.
There were a lot of familiar names and in fact I feel honoured to class a few of those in the show as my friends. We had Paul Young with the African lion influence seeping into his pressed dishes, Doug Fitch's with his warm and generous pots and Pru Cooper with her humorous illustrations on pressed dishes and plates.

The show was in the long thin gallery space and everything was beautifully displayed, each maker given a good space and not overcrowded within that. Here was part of my wee display. It's great seeing them displayed by someone else, I wouldn't ever have done that with them myself but I thought they looked great there.

Each of us had a banner with information about who we are and what we do which is printed in English and Welsh. Apparently all those involved in the exhibition had sold work which was great to hear. The price lists on the walls showed very few red dots but they were so I was told just the pieces that were not taken away at the point of sale. As a visitor it looked like sales were slow because of the lack of dots but I was pleased to hear this wasn't the case at all.

Apart from that jaunt which was work really just with added nice lunch and chatter and craft top up last week was mainly trying to get my head into what needs doing next and which needs doing first and flap flap flap I was off again within no time running about in a tizz. I did eventually get back into the swing though and then I had a new lovely ton of clay arrived on wednesday which is waiting for to be made into new things now. I have Earth and Fire in Nottingham coming up at a fair rate of knots and is about to bite me on the bum and scream that it's here and why am I still trying to make pots for it! Yikes.

So friday saw me with freshly cleaned and filled slip trailers trailing away frantically. It's great having a good stock of pots waiting to be trailed because I find I get much more into the flow of it after I've done a few and come 5 o'clock I was just wanting to continue but in fact I had to run home and wolf down some dinner and get to the Scout campsite to meet my Cub Scouts and 120 or so others along with the 50+ Scouts and the 50ish Beaver Scouts who were all converging on the Scout site that we have here in Galloway for their annual camp.

For ages and ages now I've been meaning to blog about Andy Priestman's blog. I've mentioned him and his work a fair few times on here and in fact I saw one of his pots on Ron Philbeck's blog last week. Andy lives up in a stunning part of Galloway, over in Glentrool, he has the sort of view from his place that would make it very difficult to ever do any work what so ever. He makes beautiful pots. Quiet, gentle, soft, elegant and stunning. I know I know I tend to err towards earthenware as my pottery of choice but you know these are lovely pots. I have a few now including a new addition that Andy brought me last week which had been in the firing that I had been at with him just before Spring Fling. So visit his blog and have a look.

In complete contrast to those lovely subtle colours of Andy's pots this is what the Cub Scouts were doing on my base this weekend. The theme of the camp was the circus so we were making circus animals and associated paraphernalia, that crocodile was fab and there was a lion with it's very own ring of fire to jump through. We have had a great weekend, we were lucky with the weather, it's been dry pretty much the whole time and we even had sunshine for a lot of the time, I know you're thinking it's June and you are in the northern hemisphere, of course there'll be sunshine. Ha! It is now pouring down - again and the temperature is a balmy 8 degrees C and we have had the heating on and I'm sitting here wearing my down filled top. Hey Dan come on over any time you want to cool off a bit from your crazy Virginian weather!

So I came back from camp feeling rather battered and worse for wear (how do kids manage to stay up that late?) to find a box waiting here for me. Now do I have some of the best customers in the world or what? Look what I was sent. This lady has sent me a few shards before, they live in East Yorkshire and her husband pulls these out of the garden apparently.

There are some crackers, again! Some of them are straight out of that Stoke on Trent slipware book, Paul was slightly non plussed to find his desk strewn with bits of brown broken pots, I tried to engage him in my enthusiasm but it appears not to have been hugely well received.

Spring Fling bits

A quick Spring Fling post, I thought I had more video than I do, sorry about that and now that I put it up there I may already have posted this picture of Dave and Sue trying to warm themselves at my fire, can't just remember.

I tidied one end of the workshop, it was wonderful to have the space this year. It did make it look like I didn't have many pots though but I think they looked much better for having space around them which I have never really been able to do previously.

At the end that you can't see I was throwing and handling and decorating pots when I was able, in between talking to lots of people whilst enthusing wildly about the wonderful-ness of the bubbly pots that were from the wood kiln. I took lots of people down to see the kiln, whether they wanted to or not! What I could do with though if I am able to do Spring Fling again next year is to have someone there to help me. My sister was there one day but then I was trying to show people how I do things for the rest of the weekend and wrapping pots too and it all got a bit complicated and messy.

USA Slipware Tour Volume III

Who else but a potter could have curtains like this and who else but a potter could have been excited (even when absolutely shattered and struggling to keep a track of conversations that people were trying to have with them and at one point even struggling to sit upright) about the fact that they were sleeping in a room with these curtains?
It's been a while since I had the chance to give you the next installment of the American Adventure 2011. We had the Cape Cod episode here and the Fredericksburg festivities here, just in case you managed to miss them and now to the brief but fun filled 24 hours in Seagrove.
After the tears and fond farewells with Dan at Kevin Crowes' pottery we headed on south with Mr Philbeck on the next leg of the grand tour. We were off to spend the night with another potter who we know from blogging and from organising the Bloggers Show last year, Meredith Heywood and her husband Mark. I've emailed Meredith on many occasions and read her blog and she mine but again this was the first time we were to meet. Meredith had organised a gathering of Seagrove potters the night we got there and we met so many people and were in what was fast becoming the common theme of the trip, fed and watered in style. I am so sorry to those I met that last night if I made even less sense than usual, I was exhausted and fit for nothing but it was a really great welcome.

Seagrove is home to 100+ potters, imagine all that going on in one town, it's unimaginable in this country but what a place. You would be guarenteed to find something to your taste I'm sure. The day that we spent there was in the company of Meredith and we were joined by the one and only Tracey Broome who arrived in whirlwind style (to be honest I would have been disappointed if she had done anything else really). Again we've blog read and commented but never met, and Tracey made a good long trip just to spend the day with the visiting potters that were by this point in case you haven't been paying attention Ron, me, Ang and Doug, tee hee what a treat. After a very restful nights sleep which I badly needed (no chickens and cockerels where we stayed Ron and Doug, just rubbing it in) Meredith had planned a magical mystery tour for the 6 of us around Seagrove.

We started bright and early with David Stuempfle. You know how they say everything in America is huge, well how's that for a kiln? That's just one of the two enormous wood firing kilns that David has, the other I think is just a little larger. He makes some huge pots to go in there but I am just currently drinking some wine out of my lovely tiny David Stuempfle tea bowl and very pleasant it is to use.

David's workshop was really interesting, huge, are you getting the theme here? But very sparse, not in the slightest bit like mine. It has a dirt floor and the wheel is set into the ground there. It's quite a space, I don't think it would suit me in the slightest but it had a wonderful feel to it and smelt incredible.
Inside the kiln.
After that we visited Michael Mahan and his wife Mary's place at From The Ground Up Pottery, somehow I seem not to have any photos from here, I was beginning to feel the heat a bit by this point, the sun was high in the sky and the temperature was heading for too hot for Hannah degrees. Sorry about that you two, great to see your lovely place though.

Next up was Mary Ferrell at Westmoore Pottery. This was a treat too, very much creating work of the traditions that are strong in that area of North Carolina. Beautifully displayed there in their gallery there are many many sgraffito and trailed pots which of course floated my boat.

Quick pit stop back at Meredith's for lunch and a natter and then off again to visit the North Carolina Pottery Centre. Oh what a place to have on your doorstep. A history of pots and potters in the area along with work of contemporary local makers and changing exhibitions of contemporary makers from further afield.

Then Johnston and Gentithes was the next stop. Again not many pictures I'm afraid and none of the people. Crikey I was rubbish that day with the camera, too busy trying to fill my brain with all the goodies I was being shown right left and centre.

I loved the surface on these and the illustrations on the pieces were really magical.

Last stop Bulldog Pottery with Samantha and Bruce, again no pictures apart from the pink flower but I have one of their pots in my kitchen now and we were treated too to a tour of their new house and workshop space. It's a super contemporary incredible building, not at all what you would expect to see in that rural looking area but what a space!

So there we were hot and sticky in the NC spring weather (thank goodness we didn't go in the summer!) and we were loaded back into the car for another drive to our final destination at The Philbeck Residence. Volume IV to come at some point in the future. Don't you worry there are more American tales where these have all come from, I could bore you senseless for years to come! Thanks to Meredith and Tracey for taking the time off to show us a great day and for giving us countless stomach hurting laughing bouts and once again wonderful hospitality and to all the other potters who gave up their time to show us around the spots and share their homes and workshops and love of pots.