Rustic Jug

I've been making these rustic stoneware jugs recently as part of a wholesale order. I usually make a few extra pots when preparing an order to cover accidents like breakages, and this one above is a 'spare' left over from a finished consignment. I decided to list it in my folksy shop today.

It's a lovely simple jug; hand-thrown in stoneware and glazed all over in a wood ash glaze. I love this glaze - it's very easy to use and so far has given reliable, consistent results out of the kiln. The colour is a subtle olive green with a matt finish - although in some places there's a hint of glossiness where the glaze is a bit thicker. And it gives these jugs a no-nonsense, rustic feel I think - which is why I call them 'rustic' jugs!

Anyway, for more details on this little jug visit here!

Napkin Rings and Wooden Printing Blocks

Today I decided to list these napkin rings in my Folksy shop. I designed them to match and complement my tableware range by using the same glazes and a very simple style. So far I've made this first set in white - and hopefully I shall be making more soon!

At first I toyed with the idea of throwing some napkin rings on the wheel: but that seemed much too fiddly. So I've made these by hand building them. I started by rolling out a slab of stoneware clay and cutting out equal sized rectangles. Then I curled these around themselves into a ring shape and fixed the ends by overlapping. They've all been glazed using my usual white gloss glaze both inside and out - this means that the napkin material slides nicely without snagging on bare stoneware. And inside I've also stamped each of the rings with my own pottery seal.

As you can see they have a very simple bird motif on all of them. This was made using a wooden printing block pressed into the clay while still soft. I have a selection of these wooden printing blocks which I bought back in October last year during a visit to London. They're textile printing blocks really, but I find they're perfect for making impressions in clay (and also for printing on paper of course: I've been using them to make pretty wrapping paper on birthday presents!) As soon as I saw them I knew I had to have them: they're such lovely things in themselves...

Birch Trees on the Downs

I painted this little landscape sketch a couple of weeks ago. It’s only small: just 5 inches by 5 inches on a deep-edge canvas. I’ve done a couple of these very small canvases recently (see here) and I’ve really enjoyed making them. I suppose I’ve enjoyed it because I haven’t had to worry about filling up the canvas – which sometimes feels like a large white and empty desert! Instead I can focus on a simple idea using a very simple colour scheme without fussing too much over the ‘finish’. They take just an hour or so to paint from beginning to end, and I think they work nicely because of this ‘no frills’ feel they seem to have.

This particular one is based on a quick line sketch I made about ten years ago while out walking on the South Downs near Ditchling Beacon. The sketch is also very simple – just three birch trees against a rolling slope on the downs. At the time it was autumn so the tree trunks were a lovely pure white and the leaves were bright yellow/orange against a rainy, grassy green. I’ve been meaning to do something with this sketch for a while, and finally a week or so ago I made this colour ‘doodle’.

The paints I used were very sparse: Hooker’s Green, Yellow Ochre, Ultramarine, Cobalt Blue, Burnt Umber, Titanium White and just a tiny blob of Leaf Green to add a touch of zing to the grass. I quite like the result; which is sort of chunky and loose somehow. I may come back to it and do a more ‘finished’ piece someday – or I may not! In the meantime this little canvas is hanging up in my studio and feels nice and cool and soothing; especially now my studio is getting so hot in the sun!

Charity Shop Inspirations

I’ve been rummaging around in charity shops lately looking for possible ideas and inspiration. There’s usually a few bits of old crockery, china and general ceramics in charity shops and although most pieces are no longer fashionable (some are truely hideous let’s face it…!) sometimes there’s a piece worth turning upside-down and inspecting if only to work out how it was made (before re-shelving it). And then occasionally there’s something that isn’t made of ceramics but it gets the ideas going anyway. Hence this little pewter jug I found for £1.50 in my local RSPCA shop.

I don’t know anything about pewter. It’s the first piece I’ve ever bought – although the fact it's made of pewter is incidental really because the thing that struck me about it was the little spout. I realize it's a common feature of metalwork to form a triangular hole when adding a separate spout on jugs, coffee pots etc. But in ceramics the instinct when making is to avoid this more complicated route and choose the quick and simple solution; which is to shape a lip on the rim of a jug by smoothing a channel in the clay while the pot is still wet. Of course I've seen examples of ‘hole-and-spout-pouring’ jugs in ceramics before, but it doesn’t feature as a design as often as a shaped spout. So I’ve been toying with the idea of using it; something a bit different and quirky maybe...

Anyway, the point is, it’s a nice little jug I think and it's currently perched on my shelf in the studio (along with some other charity finds) to remind me of potential design ideas. I also bought this little 1958 copy of The Observer’s Book of Painting and Graphic Art. You can’t beat Observer’s.

I just want to say thanks again to Kate at Bluebell and Rosie for featuring my tea bowl in her Folksy Friday today on her lovely blog which you can see here. And also to Helen for featuring my buttons on her Folksy Friday last week on her blog Dizzy Izzy Handmade which you can see here. And finally to Haptree for featuring my raku buttons on Craft Blog UK recently which you can see here.

Thanks guys! Bye for now.