Candleholders and Cold Clay Mornings...

Keeping warm in the winter – especially when there’s snow in the air – is tricky at the best of times. So just imagine what it’s like trying to throw pots! I always make sure I have plenty of hot water when I’m throwing – In fact it’s the first thing I do in the studio after putting on my overalls; boil the kettle for some piping hot water. But there’s no amount of comfort that can prepare you for the next stage. It’s difficult to describe just how shocking it is to plunge your bare forearms into a cold, damp plastic bag and wire off a slab of stoneware! Even if the room itself is warm enough to work in, the clay remains bone-chillingly cold in this sort of weather…

However, the show must go on! And recently (since Boxing Day in fact) I’ve been throwing regularly to try to re-stock on pots. Christmas was very good for me, but as a result I have almost nothing in stock except a few pots here and there. So I’m steadily working through a huge list of ‘priority pots’ (which at the moment feels like everything I’ve ever made!)

But it’s always good to try something new too; to keep things fresh. Above is a photo of a new design I made last week. I’ve always wanted to make candleholders but never seemed to get around to trying them out. So when I received a request recently for two candleholders with handles, I decided to have a go right away and made a small batch of six. I’m very pleased with them actually and they were fun to make too. I made them in one piece; a bit like throwing a lid with a knob. I threw the flat ‘saucer’ part first, leaving a lump of clay in the middle which I then pulled upwards into the candle ‘bowl’. Next day I gave the base a quick clean and added a small handle for carrying. And I’m looking forward to seeing how they come out – because I might be tempted to keep one for myself…

Lists and End of Year Review...

At the beginning of 2012 I made a list of things I wanted to do. These included new designs I wanted to make and equipment I wanted to add to the studio. And for once I’ve actually managed to cross off all the items on the list! This is unheard of: usually at the end of the year I have to transfer half the items from the unfinished ‘to do’ list over onto the following year. So 2012 has been a very productive year for me!

Two major items on the list this year were a) fix the studio roof and b) install a kiln. Both took much longer than expected and proved very disruptive: but ultimately worth it in the end. My studio has been transformed and it’s made such a difference to how I work. As for the kiln: well I’ve only just squeezed that into the last closing minutes of the year. It was finally plugged into the electrics last week and switched on. As far as I know it’s ready to go (all the lights are working and nothing exploded thankfully) but I still need to do a ‘first firing’…

Of course once you cross off one thing on the list, new things spring up in its place. So here’s my current mini sub-list for the last few remaining days of the year:

1)   Read the manual for the kiln controller (not as easy as it sounds).

2)   Program the controller for a ‘first firing’ (still not as easy as it sounds).

3)   Load the kiln with furniture only (ie; shelves and supports, no ware) leaving bungs out to ‘first fire’ the kiln. (This is done to oxidise the brand new kiln interior and also to dry out the batts.)

4)   Cross fingers and hope it all works…

5)   Shout yippee if it does and apply batt wash to kiln shelves.

6)   In the meantime continue making pots ready for a first bisque firing (planned for sometime in January).

7)   Oh yes, and have Christmas day in there somewhere!

I’ve already started my new list for 2013. Next year I’m looking forward to getting to grips with firing my new kiln and developing my own range of glazes. And of course I’d like to make some new designs again too. No rest for the wicked.

Happy Holidays!

Special Delivery Again

It’s been a busy month – and it’s not over yet! I’ve been up to my ears in Christmas shows. In fact my next show starts later tonight at 6pm. I’ve got everything packed ready and soon I’ll have to leave to set up my stand. But since I’ve got a few minutes to spare before I go, I thought I’d quickly blog about my extra special news…

As you can see in the photo above, I’ve had a lovely new kiln delivered! It actually arrived weeks ago – at the beginning of November – but I’ve had so much to organise with all the shows I’ve been doing I haven’t had any time to blog it or even unwrap it properly. I’ve been walking past it in the studio carrying boxes of pots backwards and forwards, but I haven’t had any time to play around with it. Most frustrating!

It’s a toploading electric kiln, single phase, 40 amp and as you can see from the photo, bright green! It still needs to be wired directly into the plug, which means I have to wait a bit longer… And it’s actually bigger than I expected. When it was being unloaded off the back of the lorry there was a moment when I thought it wasn’t going to fit through the front door. And when we got it off the pallet and to the bottom of the front steps, then it really became obvious it wasn’t going to fit through the front door. Not only was it impossibly heavy for two people to lift (there was nothing to hold onto and frankly the steps defeated us) but also, despite all my careful measurements, I hadn’t accounted for the door handle…there’s a lesson there.

However, we managed eventually to wheel it into the studio via a long circumambulatory route (luckily it was already fitted with casters) and we even had daylight to spare! We pushed it into the corner of the studio and went into town to celebrate with a couple of well-deserved lattes. And since then my poor new kiln has been sitting waiting exactly where we left it.

Anyway, I have to go now to set up a show! Hopefully next month the kiln will be plugged in and ready to go.

Winter Plates - Display

Yet again I’ve got building work going on today (!) and since I can’t make any pots I thought I’d do a quick blog update. I’ve been meaning to blog this for ages in fact, but got distracted. Back in August (in the middle of summer!) I was making a couple of side plates on the theme of ‘Winter’. You might remember the post. This was for a promotional photo idea for an Etsy team which I’m a member of, called the UK Clay Users or UCU for short. The idea was to design and make plates that could be arranged as a wintery themed wall display.

As you can see in the photo above the collection of plates look really good together – we all seemed to colour coordinate! And the winter theme really does show through in the display. The photo and the idea itself is all thanks to Jude Winnal of VanillaKiln on Etsy – a big thanks Jude for all your hard work! And all our plates were made available for sale in our Etsy shops: mine is still available here, along with a smaller sister plate with a different decoration. To find out more about each individual plate and shop links, here’s a link to the UCU blog post. UCU is also now on Pinterest too.