Photo Shoot at Home in the Kitchen

When it comes to taking photos of pots, my style of photography for the past ten years or so has favoured a plain white or minimalist background. I like the simple look of this style so it's always been a 'go to' choice for me. Also magazines prefer to use such images when publishing a feature.

But it does have drawbacks. The main one is that people can't tell at a glance how big or small a pot is. This is a concern when some of my pots might look exactly the same but come in different sizes - like my modern pourer jugs, bird tail bowls and pouring bowls. Also, some of my pots (like the garlic grater bowls for instance) don't translate very well on a plain white background. Some pots just need a bit more visual explanation!

So recently I decided I needed to do a photo shoot using 'styled' settings to give some of my pots a context. The setting I chose was my kitchen at home. Most of my pots are kitchenware or food related in some way, so it seemed an obvious choice.

Luckily there's enough daylight coming in through the kitchen window in the morning to allow me to take photos without the need for any additional lighting. I do have a reflector though (made from aluminium foil wrapped over a piece of cardboard) to help kick back some light into the shadows. I just prop it up where I need it.

And talking of props...sometimes this is the best part of planning a shoot. In this selection of photos I have some new props to play with. They include an old wooden board which I've painted using pale grey emulsion on one side. This board is movable so it can be used both as a surface or a backdrop for pots (as seen in the photo at the top of this post).

The unpainted wooden surface in the rest of these photos is actually my normal kitchen table and the little chopping board is one I use all the time for preparing food (it's handmade by CottageCoppicing). A jar of local honey, some garlic bulbs (also from the Isle of Wight) and other food props all help to set the scene. I'm hoping these photos will give some idea of scale and show the pots 'in action'.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the new photos. As always, these pots are available to purchase from my Etsy and Folksy shops. Thanks for reading!

Natural Dyeing Day - Wool, Cloth and Colours

Clockwise from top left: Natural wool skeins and fleece, Brewing up some eucalyptus leaves, and below, Pots of dye bubbling on the open fire pit

I don't normally blog about anything else besides pots (and very occasionally paint). But last week my sister and I spent a lovely day in her garden enjoying ourselves doing some natural dyeing. It was so interesting to see all the colours appearing - and I took quite a few photos too, so I thought I'd blog about it for a change!

My sister (Sue Wright Handknits) is a weaver, spinner and knitter who uses natural dyes to colour her hand spun yarns. Last week she invited me to come along to help out - and have a go myself. So I went armed with overalls, a big bag of home grown nettles (for dyeing) and some small pieces of muslin to make test pieces.

Logwood Natural Dye: A gorgeous purple. The bottom right picture is after adding iron to get a blue purple.

Our first test was to bubble up my nettles in a pot. We stewed them for quite a while before straining the liquid off to use as our dye. Sue also stewed a batch of Eucalyptus leaves on the fire pit - which we thought would smell strongly of menthol, but didn't! These were our two home grown dye material sources, while the rest were natural dyes available from kits: like the gorgeous purple Logwood you can see in the photos above.

Brazilwood Natural Dye: vibrant salmon orange shades (on wool) and pale pinks on cloth.  The bottom right photo is with the addition of iron - again adding bluer tones

We got into a good routine with batches turning around regularly. Which meant there was barely enough time to admire the latest result before the next batch was ready to come off the fire, cool down and rinse.

The Logwood and the Brazilwood (above) we used twice to get two shades from each by adding iron to the second batch. As a potter this was a very interesting aspect to the dyeing process - how additions of iron can change the colour. What would we do without iron and its oxides?! In both cases there was a shift from the red tones in the colours to a bluer, cooler shade.

Natural Dye Results: gorgeous range of colours from 8 different batches

What was also really interesting is how different the results were between the wool and the cloth. While Sue's skeins and fleece came out a vivid salmon colour using the Brazilwood, my muslin cloth was a pretty pale pink. Unfortunately my nettles only gave a slight change of colour - a very pale cream. Next time we'll add the stalks too! But the Eucalyptus was a good yellow response compared to the Natural Dye Fustic kit which was a much paler yellow.

Natural Dye Results: (top to bottom) Nettle, Eucalyptus, Fustic, Brazilwood (pink), Logwood (blue), Brazilwood with iron (lilac), Logwood (purple) 

Overall it was a lovely day with lots of interesting and inspiring colours. Above is a photo of all my scraps of muslin together. As everything we used was natural, the colour ranges go together really well. I had planned to make a handmade voile for the backdoor with all my pieces - but instead I've been using them to help 'style' my pots in a recent photoshoot. So you might see them around!

Thank you Sue!!!

LandScape Magazine Feature: Pouring Bowls and Pancake Day

I'm absolutely thrilled to be featured in Jan/Feb 2017 issue of LandScape Magazine! You can find a photo of me holding my pouring bowl set on page 41 as part of an editorial for inspiring seasonal ideas and recipes for the kitchen.

Pancake Day isn't far away: it's the 28th of February this year, and my bowls are great for making small batches of batter as well as all sorts of other culinary uses! The small 'drizzle' bowl is perfect for drizzling oil (hence the name...) or for dipping sauces; and the larger pouring bowl comes in very handy for making scrambled eggs.

My pouring bowls are available as a set of two bowls (one small and one large) for £30.00. At the time of writing I've sold out of current stock, but they're available as a Made to Order custom listing in both my Etsy and Folksy shops (making time approx 10-12 weeks).

I really enjoyed this issue of LandScape Magazine which has articles on the British countryside, cooking and recipe ideas as well as features on crafts - especially traditional ones. So it's just my cup of tea! And it makes a really lovely start to the year to be featured - so thank you!

Speckled Stoneware Clay - Some New Pots and Designs

This year I've been using a speckled stoneware clay more often to make new designs. Some of these designs I make exclusively using this clay because they go together so well. When fired, this clay is lighter in colour than my usual stoneware and is best described as 'ecru'. It has a brown speckle throughout which comes from the tiny flecks of iron inside the clay.

As well as being a lovely clay to throw (it's very smooth and creates hardly any mess!) the speckle feature is very versatile. I often leave areas of pots unglazed to show off the natural bare clay. The speckle is great for this as it has lots of interest both visually and also to touch. It's a very tactile surface when fired and feels rougher than my usual stoneware but has a warmth to it too. It's great for making modern style cylinder shapes like my new large fruit bowls and salt and pepper sets (seen in the photos above).

I've also been using the speckle stoneware as a base for some new sgraffito designs (seen above). My usual stoneware clay is a bit too dark for this type of work, so having a lighter clay has allowed me to develop a new range of blue speckle ware. I've made just a few pieces in this style so far (some of which have been bought straight out of the kiln!) It requires brushing on a blue black slip onto the pot whilst still at the leather hard stage. Then I scratch (sgraffito) a design onto the pot. This reveals the light clay underneath giving a contrast. Finally I use a clear glaze over the whole pot to allow both the blue and the bare speckle clay to show through.

The lighter colour of this clay means that when I apply my usual glazes to it, these look very different too. This creates more versatility and options without having to create new glaze recipes. Most of the time though I prefer to use either clear glazes or an oatmeal glaze with this clay - both of which allow the natural speckle and ecru colour to show through. This style creates a very simple but modern feel which I really like.

Anyway, hope you enjoy the photos of some of my speckled stoneware pots! All the pots in the photos above are currently available in my Folksy and Etsy shops.

Candle Bowls

The women in my family have a thing for candles. A long time ago I bought my mum a candle in a terracotta bowl. I thought it was a lovely idea and I suspect mum did too - because she still has it on display in her house unlit after all these years! Back then I didn't know how to make pots - although of course I've always loved pottery. So when I started making pots, this idea kept popping into my head. Recently I thought it was about time I made some for myself. So here they are!

The thing I like about these candle bowls is that they are entirely handmade. I've made the bowl as usual - hand thrown on the wheel using stoneware clay. I chose to glaze on the inside only using a clear glaze so the natural bare clay shows on the outside. Then I've hand poured the candle too using quality soy wax from Aura. The great thing about these bowls is that once you've burned the candle you can clean the bowl and use it again. It makes them extra unique I think and gives them a life beyond.

At the moment I've only made unscented candles because I wanted to see the response. Already I've had a good reaction to them - so in the future I might consider using fragrances. In the meantime I'm also making a new batch of these candle bowls in a speckled clay and might consider colour glazes too. But I rather like the natural simplicity of them as they are now - they have a very calming feel I think. 

I'm really pleased with these candle bowls. They're lovely to have lit whilst meditating or doing yoga for instance and I've discovered they can be cupped in the hand and feel quite cool to touch too. They come with a little card to explain what they are and make perfect gifts for people who have a thing for candles AND pots!

These candle bowls are available in my Folksy and Etsy shops.

Eclipse: Moon Bowls in Black Stoneware Clay

Today we had a solar eclipse. The plan was perfect. Fire the kiln on Thursday (yesterday) so this morning I could watch the eclipse in the garden while I waited for the kiln to cool down. Unfortunately a thick blanket of cloud obscured the entire event! And although it went quite dark around 9.30am (during which time we had a nice piece of carrot cake and a cup of tea) it mostly felt the same as if it was about to start raining. Oh well, never mind! Hopefully the bisque kiln will be fine though and I'll be able to crack it soon and start glazing some pots.

In the meantime - as it's topical - I thought I'd blog about my moon bowls. I've been experimenting with different stoneware clays in the past year or so. One of these clays is a deep black stoneware designed mostly for modelling or sculptural pieces. It can also be used as a throwing clay however - in small doses. It has a very high iron and grog content which makes it very coarse to handle when making. This is perfect for hand modelling but when it comes to throwing (with the wheel spinning round) it feels like your hands are being shredded by sandpaper! When I first used it I raised the roof and could only manage to make one small bowl before I gave up and plastered my poor hands in E45. (People who throw porcelain have no idea...!)

Since then I have modified the original black clay by adding in some of my usual stoneware to make throwing more comfortable. This produces a lovely deep chocolate brown colour when fired and left unglazed. So far I've only used a white glaze on this clay. My usual satin white glaze reacts differently on this clay body producing a really interesting pitting effect. This instantly reminded me of craters on the moon, especially when used on little round bowl shapes. Hence calling them moon bowls.

Would you believe it, as I type the sun is actually coming out?! Time for more tea (maybe another piece of carrot cake) and to check the kiln temperature I think. In the meantime, here's a picture of some more pots and ceramic spoons I've been making with my lovely black/chocolate brown stoneware clay. Enjoy!

Homes and Gardens Magazine Feature - Bird Tail Pouring Bowls

© Homes and Gardens Magazine December 2014

Recently I found out my 'bird tail' pouring bowls were featured in this month's Homes and Gardens Magazine (December 2014 issue). It was a complete surprise and I'm so pleased - especially as they look great too which is the most important thing!

I have two sizes of bird tail bowls - a small one that fits in the palm of your hand and a larger one about the size of a normal cereal bowl. Both have been featured in Homes and Gardens Gift Guide along with a selection of other Christmas gift ideas for budding chefs.

© Homes and Gardens Magazine December 2014

In the feature they used my blue and white bird bowls but I also make them using a contrasting brown and oatmeal glaze combination in the smaller size. All my bird bowls are available directly from me via my Etsy and Folksy Shops but in the feature they're also stocked by Aram Store in Covent Garden, London. 

It was such a lovely surprise and a great way to end a very busy year...!

Coffee Set and Coffee Bowls

What a busy summer! Since my last post I've been potting away making lots of pots for wholesale orders and a few private commissions too. And it seems to be a quirk of making pots that sometimes different people ask for similar things. 

This past month the theme was coffee and I was asked to make a coffee set (as seen in the photos above). This included a coffee pot (complete with lid and pouring lip) a lidded sugar bowl and a set of four coffee mugs. Although I've made each of these items separately before this was the first time I've made them together as a matching coffee set. 

The most tricky thing to do was the coffee pot itself of course as it required so many composite elements. The body of the pot is essentially a big jug, but since it was a part of a set, I had to make it big enough to hold a liquid capacity that would pour out and fill at least four of the matching mugs' worth of coffee! Then it had to have a handle strong enough to hold the weight of it plus all that liquid, while at the same time being comfortable to use and pour. And finally it had to have a lid which not only fitted but allowed pouring through the lip or spout whilst in place. As you can see in the photo I also cleaned back the glaze from the rim of the coffee pot to leave a section of un-glazed bare clay. This makes sure the lid doesn't stick to the pot permanently when fired in the kiln.

In the end I was very pleased with the result because everything matched and all the elements worked: and most importantly my customer was happy too! The glaze I used for the coffee set was a new version of my wood ash glaze. This has proved such a popular glaze and works especially well with rustic style coffee themed items! Below is another wholesale order I finished recently: a batch of coffee bowls using another version of my wood ash glaze. I actually have two of these coffee bowls left spare - and both are available in my Folksy Shop now. I hope you enjoy the photos!

Biscuit Bowls - Yummy Cookie Bowls

One day I was carrying a mug of tea in one hand and some biscuits in the other and I had a brainwave. A little biscuit bowl; just big enough for a couple of biscuits. A small shallow bowl to catch all those precious chocolatey crumbs and cute enough to feel like a special treat (without eating the entire packet).

One of my favourite things about pottery is that now when I have an idea for a pot I'd like to own myself, I don't have to wait for someone else to think the same way or look out for something similar-but-not-quite-right in the shops. Instead I can actually make it. And so these are my first little biscuit bowls (or cookie bowls if you like).

I wanted these bowls to be a bit special so I decided to write a biscuit based message on each using letterpress letters impressed into the clay when wet. These are highlighted in a deep brown oxide wash under a lovely neutral glaze. I think this gives them a really cosy but cute feeling - and can be personalised if people want.

I also decided to use a different clay for these bowls. This clay has a lovely light neutral or ecru shade with lots of dark speckles - which I thought would be perfect to go with biscuits. I also left the underside of the bowls completely unglazed to reveal and emphasise the natural bare clay.

My new biscuit bowls are now available to buy in my Etsy shop. Enjoy!

Pancake Day Special: Set of Two Pouring Bowls

For quite a few years now I've been forgetting to remember Pancake Day. Perhaps it's because the date moves around every year; I never know when it's going to pop up. Also these days IAC is gluten free - so torturing him with the smell of freshly frying pancakes seems ever so slightly cruel...and just think, I'd have to eat them all by myself! So for a couple of years now I only notice it's whizzed past un-celebrated when I stroll into the supermarket and see a haphazard 'after-the-rush' display of flour, eggs and squeezy lemons on special offer.

But this year I decided I wanted to feature my pouring bowls as a set - so Pancake Day seemed the perfect opportunity. I've been making my pouring bowls for about three years now starting off with my smallest size 'drizzle' bowl and then adding a medium sized batter bowl. I also make a larger version which is currently made-to-order only. I had wanted to offer a three-bowl set in time for Pancake Day, but I'm out of stock on the larger bowls. So instead I'm offering a two-bowl option at the moment featuring one medium and one small pouring bowl as a Set of Two.

I hope you'll agree they're very cute bowls! I have a set myself in the kitchen which I'm always using for just about everything. The extra functionality of the pouring lip just means these bowls are often my first choice out of the cupboard - because then if I happen to need to pour anything when cooking, I'm ready and prepared.

The photo above shows the Set of Two pouring bowls on offer which includes one small 'drizzle' bowl and one medium batter bowl. These are currently available in both my Folksy and Etsy shops priced at £28. (This gives a discount of over 10% on buying them individually.)

By the way, just in case you don't know, this year Pancake Day is Tuesday 4th of March!

Pots That Pour: New Pouring Jugs and Bowls

New Pourers

Just a quick blog about pots that pour! I do enjoy making pots with pouring lips. There's something about adding a lip to a shape that instantly transforms it into a pot with purpose. It seems to say 'look, you can pour stuff out!' and that makes people identify with them, and imagine all sorts of ways of using them. Also, a pouring lip gives a pot a sense of character - a bit of personality.

Above are my newest pouring jugs. These are a variation on my 'tip jug' - in other words jugs without handles. These are a bit taller and straighter in design and measure about 6.5cm high (that's about 2.5 inches or so). Dispensing with the handle makes using these jugs an even more tactile experience - they feel so nice in the hand and they're easy to grab and use. Sometimes handles can actually get in the way of function; because you have to turn the jug around to get at them. These little jugs are just grab and go! They're available for sale now in my Etsy Shop.

Freshly Thrown Pouring Bowls

And here's my latest 'pots that pour': some new pouring bowls. These are a larger size to go with my drizzle bowls and 'medium' pouring bowls. As you can see they're freshly thrown in the picture - still on their batts. Since then I've turned the bases and they're now drying in the studio. But in the meantime, here's some photos of my smaller sized pouring bowls. I took these recently for listing in my Esty and Folksy shops. Hope you enjoy them!

Pouring Bowls, Drizzle Bowls

Glazing and First Glaze Firing

Glazing Bird Bowls

Making Glazes and Glazing Pots.

Since my last blog post I’ve been busy making glazes ready to test them out in the kiln. I prefer making my own glazes from scratch using raw materials rather than buying them ready-made. Knowing what ingredients go into each glaze gives me a certain amount of control over the results. It’s also very satisfying knowing you made the glaze entirely yourself: it feels more personal.

The photo montage above features a batch of my bisque-fired pots being glazed ready for glaze firing. Most of the pots shown are my bird bowls in two different sizes (small and large). As you can see the glazes are quite odd looking in their raw state: in fact they’re often completely different in colour to the final fired result. One is my standard white matt glaze - which happens to look pure white in the raw state. But the other one – shown here highlighting the bird-tail handles - has a rusty colour at this stage, which changes to glossy blue/black when fired.

Once all the pots have dried out for a few days they can be glaze fired.

First Glaze Firing.

Actually, I can’t believe I haven’t already blogged about this yet! I did my first glaze firing in my new kiln about three weeks ago. Long story short, it was an incredibly stressful day. Not least because about eight hours in I made the mistake of fiddling with the control panel and accidentally turned the whole thing of! Luckily I somehow retained enough composure to quickly tap in an emergency program to finish the firing before the temperature started to drop. But the less said about that the better…

Well, next day (a full 24 hours after switch off) the temperature had cooled down enough to risk ‘cracking the kiln’. Bearing in mind the ludicrous mistake I made the day before, I was simply incapable of calling it. I decided either it was going to be a complete disaster (glazes running everywhere, pots ruined – the works) or a total success. Luckily it was the latter! In fact I unpacked the kiln muttering to myself over and over that I couldn’t believe it had worked. Every single pot came out perfect! Both of my glazes worked beautifully and I was incredibly pleased with the results. But I’ve learned my lesson. I won’t be fiddling with the control panel ever again!

Cracking the Kiln!

Today I took some new up-to-date photos and listed some of my small white bird bowls here in my Folksy and Etsy shops. Hope you like them!

Small Bird Bowls

New Studio Roof...and some pots

Pottery isn’t always about pots. Sometimes it’s about fixing a leaky roof. And that’s what I’ve been doing for the past few weeks. It’s been a disruptive month actually: the old leaky studio was so dilapidated the rain was pouring in like a tap. The whole roof had to be taken off and a new one put on - which of course meant clearing everything out of the studio and storing it elsewhere. And for added disruption the weather decided to be as wet and windy as possible! In the meantime I’ve managed somehow to continue making pots on corners of tables and in between the sounds of drilling. And although the roof is now watertight, there are still some details to finish and electrics that need putting in…

I’m really pleased though with my new roof! Studio space is so important to making – I find that if I feel comfortable in a space then it makes all the difference to the work. When the builders left I spent a few days painting the walls and fixing all the windows myself – so at the moment it feels like a brand new workroom. From now on the ‘new’ part of the studio will be a glazing/firing room while the other part of the studio will remain a making/throwing room. I hope by dividing the working space into two separate areas this will create a better flow of production. So I’m looking forward to a more efficient studio space once everything is finished.

In the meantime though I thought I’d show you some photos of the larger bird bowl design I was making in the last blog post. I’m quite pleased with the result. I only made two of these as test pieces really – the rest of the batch I made without ‘tails’ so they can be used as normal pouring/batter bowls.

And that’s October nearly over already! Next month it will be Christmas shows…

Making Pouring Bowls

Turning or trimming base

In the past couple of days I’ve been making a small batch of batter bowls or larger pouring bowls. These are bowls with a pouring lip that prove really useful around the kitchen when cooking. I use one of my own pouring bowls regularly for beating eggs to make quick omelettes. They’re about the size of a normal breakfast bowl so they’re very handy to have around compared to traditional mixing bowls which are often huge cumbersome things stored at the back of cupboards. And of course having the lip just means they’re satisfying to use – which is the main thing of course.

Lifting Bowl off wheelhead after turning

These larger pouring bowls are really ‘a size up’ from my small drizzle bowls. So basically they follow the same shape and design but on a larger scale. Back in April I made a variation on my drizzle bowls by adding a small thumb handle. I called this variation ‘bird bowl’ pouring bowls because the handle seemed to look like a bird tail. They’ve proved quite popular and I’ve been asked to make a larger version of them. So in the same batch I’ve also made a couple of test bowls to see how feasible they are on a larger scale.

Making thumb handles

So far this larger bird bowl design seems to work. Sometimes scaling-up changes the nature of a pot so much that different sizes don’t always seem to relate to each other. Happily at the moment they have the same sort of vibe as the little ones do. I had to reconsider the design of the thumb handle so it could withstand the extra weight. An odd feature of making pottery is that logic, maths and ratios don’t always make sense: just doubling the size of the handle for instance wasn’t going to function well or look right. Instead I extended the width of the tail to accommodate the whole thumb and give support. Hopefully this will retain the function as well as keep the ‘feel’ of the little bowls. Of course I won’t know if they work as a design until they’ve been glazed.

Larger 'Bird Bowl Pouring Bowl'

Anyway, I’m quite pleased and excited by this larger size. When making pots I always think it’s a good sign if you feel the urge to keep one for yourself.

Detail handle and lip