Autumn Days

Autumn means berry hunting with my Cubs, they were making autumn collections this week, they looked great though not entirely edible.

I was away in London at the weekend at Ceramics in the City at the Geffrye Museum. It's one of my favourite shows, it's small and manageable, and friendly and in a fab place. I think I probably say that every time I go there but it's true. This time it was a great show. I sold lots of pots which was great and met many old friends and new ones too. I really enjoyed it.

I traveled down with my friend and fellow potter James Hake, we left his place just north of Lancaster at half four on Thursday morning - yikes! It was fun to spend some time catching up with him too, we don't meet up very often at all.

Back home this week to last minute panicking in the way that only I can panic. Flap flap flappety flap, you know the score. My deadline for delivering the pots that are to be shipped to Philadelphia is on wednesday next week, that's been shifted forward by a chunk hence the panic, I had thought that I was doing not too bad really but in fact - nope!

It's the usual story, I don't feel I've done enough or good enough or the right variety. I've still the possibility I suppose to send some on by air at a later date but I wanted to just get it all together and sent in one lot and then I could get on with worrying about other things. We'll see, I need to make a list and try to work out what that will look like in this space that I don't really understand until I can stand in it. These American 'booths' seem a bit different to how I'm used to them over here.

I've a visitor coming this weekend, my friend Russel from New Zealand via Perth Australia. Paul and me spent time with him when we were in New Zealand which I was thinking was two or three years ago but actually is five years ago come December. I'm looking forward to seeing him again. Hope the sun comes back out so he can enjoy Galloway in it's great autumn colours.

When it's good it's very very good and when it's bad it's horrid.

Wow! It's a lovely sunny September time here in south west Scotland. Perfect drying weather for my pots. Thank goodness!

I've been throwing and handling and slipping and trying to get through my list. After what feels like months of things just not happening finally it all feels good and it seems like things might actually be about to come together. For throwing the clay has been just right, the shapes have been apearing as if by magic, the slips are just smooth and lump free and flowing and because I have so many things to decorate I'm getting into it and it's all just happening wonderfully. It feels great! These jugs like the one above are just 1lb and they are good fun. I made 10 of them and I really like them, might do some more.

Here's one of the Doug Fitch influenced jugs. It's got my new American friendly glaze on the inside which I completely forgot was clear and so leaves a rather weird white rim to the jug where it goes over the slip but I do have an iron stained version of the glaze so that's ok. As long as I remember next time.

New pots too, fresh out of the kiln ready to come with me down to Ceramics in the City at the Geffrye Museum (see previous post if you want the details).

Lots of new little plates, I really like this size of plate, they can be quick and fun and hopefully not too pricey.

This is trailing over finger wipey slip. Did I ever tell you how much I love slip?

The first of a series of panels to take over to the PMA Craft Show in Philadelphia soon oh so soon.

Oh and crazy dragons have come to town again.
The "Still Movement" exhibition is coming to a close this weekend, Saturday 24th September is the final day for seeing it at Gracefield Arts Centre in Dumfries. It would be lovely to show it somewhere else. If you know anywhere that you think it would suit or who you think might be interested to show it please let me know. I've still some more pictures from that to blog too.

A wee bit of a silly kitty cat that blends in with the carpet.

MadeByHandOnline and Ceramics in the City

Well I popped around the long way to work this morning as it was such a lovely morning, very autumnal oh yes, misty and wet grass but blue skies and heck it wasn't raining nor blowing a gale. In celebration of the autumn which I do love, it's my favourite time of year, here are some new pots for sale on MadeByHandOnline. They are all oak leaf pots and I hope you like them.

This weekend boys and girls is Ceramics in the City time in London at The Geffrye Museum once again. It's such a lovely show, I really enjoy it. Here's all the details for those of you that might be in the area at the time. I hope to see some of you there.

It opens thursday evening with a private view and then continues friday, saturday and sunday.

Say hello if you come by.

Still Movement Volume III

Here you go, some more images from 'Still Movement'. This first one is 'Of Reeds', the image of Phil's that it is worked from is just further down the post here. Thought I'd show you where these pieces came from too as it might be interesting.

Each of these panels of mine is approximately 22 x 22cm and they are about 3cm deep, each has a hanging loop on the back too just in case you don't want to grout them into your fireplace.

This is Phil McMenemy's image 'Reeds'. This particular version of it is the same size as my panels and is block mounted and heat sealed. Do feel free to contact Phil if you would like any more information about the images and the options that are available.

This is the full image 'Reeds' that I used.
Next up we have 'Grasses'. Again Phil's image that inspired this is below. What is rather odd is that I didn't ever have a colour proper copy of this image when I was working on my pieces. All I had was a dodgy print out from my computer when the ink cartridge was running out and it's a bit grey and streaky as a result. I'd been using the white slips brushed on for both of these pieces and though I'd maybe used it too thinly on these plates but when they came out finished they looked remarkably similar in tone to the photograph.

The plates are if I remember rightly about 40cm diameter - ish. I'm really pleased with them.

Phil McMenemy 'Grasses'.

A Bit Doug Fitch

I slipped these two jugs this morning. It's crazy wild gales here at the moment. Now I quite like a bit of a storm but this has been nasty today. I 'rode' to work this morning - derrrrrr. Not a clever move, I had to pedal frantically to get down the hill, not good. There's lots of big branches down and the power has been in and out all day. Anyway I was thinking wild windy weather and trying to get the slip things from the tiles I'd been making onto three dimensional things. Before I knew it I'd put these panels around the jugs that were a bit Doug Fitch. Anyway I soon put more twiddly bits in them so it disguises the fact that they started a bit DF.

I am still working honestly!

Here's some pictures of wet slip for those of you who share my passion for the lovely stuff. I am mainly making pots now for the PMA Craft Show which is speeding towards me at a fair rate of knots. I'm also finishing a last few pots for Ceramics in the City at the Geffrye Museum coming up the weekend after next.

I'm always really pleased to be accepted for the show at the Geffrye Museum in London, I really enjoy it. It's such a pleasant way to do a show in London, it's great and the museum is very special too. It's on from the 23rd to 25th September this year, that's the friday and saturday from 10am till 5pm and is open from 12 noon till 5pm on the sunday.

I've been working lots on these flat pieces which is still rather odd for me. They are a continuation of the "Of Reeds" pieces that I made for the "Still Movement" exhibition (still open until September 24th if you haven't had a chance to visit it yet). Hint hint.

Finally for you here is a gingery Biscuit.

And here are biscuits of ginger, we are being very careful not to mix them up.

Still Movement Volume II

Forming

Here we go with Volume II of Still Movement. These three images are all Phil McMenemy's view of my making processes. This is where we started with the whole collaboration thing and as a result we have hundreds of images. What Phil wanted to get was a not completely obvious view of a potter making pots. This is harder than it would seem to be.

Centered

We neither of us wanted this part of the exhibition to be a story board of how to make a pot start to finish. Of that much we were certain. Phil's interest in capturing motion in a still image is what I think you can see throughout them all.

Motion

There are a couple more images that fall into this section of the exhibition but I shall save them for another post. In the mean time I hope you enjoy these.

Just for your information too, finished images are block mounted and heat-sealed for complete safety to protect from light damage and are limited to 5 off only at 24”x16”, the price for these sizes are £145. If you are at all interested in them and would like more information or to discuss alternatives, please drop me a line or contact Phil and we can help you out. Thanks.

Still Movement Volume I

Blue Line

I'm going to drip feed these images to you. It's for those of you who are too far away to visit the "Still Movement" exhibition which is on at Gracefield Arts Centre in Dumfries until September 24th. Closed sundays and mondays though. The whole show is the result of a collaboration between myself and fine art photographer Phil McMenemy.
In this post you have Phil McMenemy's photographs which he took for the show and then gallery photographs (by Colin Tennant) which mainly are of the pieces that I made for the show.

Reach jugs

Each of my pieces have been made with one of Phil's images in mind. I eventually close four of his images to work with, I'll give you those in another post too.

Stages

Myself and Phil spent an awful lot of time together talking about this exhibition, and drinking tea and worrying about this exhibition and eating cake and then out and about taking my pots out into the landscapes that Phil loves to photograph and well, drinking tea.

Ice Line (photograph) with Crack (slipware dish set, these can be wall hung too)

This piece is inspired by the huge image there on the wall of a crack in a frozen loch, my interpretation is a series of 12 dishes which range from about 5" diameter to about 15" diameter.

I don't have the skills necessary to produce huge pots (yet!) and the gallery space at Gracefield is rather large as you can see. My domestic pots would be utterly lost if I just placed one or two of them in the space. I didn't want to use any plinths in the end as I'm a bit sick of them and this gave me the chance to do something different. My way of creating scale was to use groups and sets of pots.

Nestle

Phil's work is very particularly Phil I think and I love the way he has placed my pots into his views of Galloway.

Still Movement

The photographs and the pots that form the exhibition are for sale, if you would like more information please just contact me and I can pass you on to Phil or Gracefield. Let me know what you think of the show. I know it's not quite the same not seeing it in the space. The rest will come over the next week or so.

Just for your information too, finished images are block mounted and heat-sealed for complete safety to protect from light damage and are limited to 5 off only at 24”x16”, the price for these sizes are £145. If you are at all interested in them and would like more information or to discuss alternatives, please drop me a line or contact Phil and we can help you out. Thanks.