The "Umble Lill ol pot"

A board or two of classic affordable little pots for the "Better buy something before we go" custom.This ones for you 'Sculptrix'(Google blog'Clay Chronicles'Guess what they are?)Do you know what these are?,A simple little 12oz pot of many heights and diameter's. First one to let me know exactly what they are gets one,Gratis!

The necks make em a bit of a 'Pigaroo' to turn but throwing a suitably accommodating chuck from clay or sticking a found pot on the wheel head answers the problem.

My favourite tool for getting into tight corners without the actual tool itself impeding the operation is in fact the simplest .A 'Shim' of hardened steel,broken in half has a subtle curve allowing you to tuck it in & under the foot.

Having droned on in the past about 'Studio' pots,don't neglect the something for a few quid sale.Get it right by giving due thought to what is wanted,and multiples of small pots soon add up.

Best sellers this year were Citronella garden lights bonded to good quality canes. Quite often small items can be economically produced from some other make or process.I hate waste so if ever extruding die formed handles then the odd lengths get turned into lightweight 'Apron' hooks and off cut coils become simple 'mushroom' cane tops (stops you poking yer eye out!)

The ducks shown are one of the very few things i have ever 'slip cast'(pouring liquid clay in to a mould)These from the original.The very first ones were air brushed in multi real colours but were prohibitively expensive to market.

market place

Having been recognised as a tad alternative (weird if you like) I was once given a set of flying ducks.What a catalyst that proved to be.Moving on from'Naff Coronation street' to retro chic happened at lightening speed.Suddenly my downstairs sported some 150 ducks.Buying a set twenty tears ago for a then staggering sixty quid led most people to think I'd finally lost the plot!

"Does it pour?"

Seems like those lonely little goblets will need 'flagons'.Thrown with a tall graspable neck wide enough to accept a bung,seemed to be for me a more simple design that evolved from overly complex Handels lugs & other accouterments. Rather than go through the agonies of forming a chuck to 'upend' them and turn their bases( a chuck being a ball of clay thrown dry on the wheel to a 'bucket' or deep enough shape to accommodate your pot upside down,some times a found ready made pot will do!)I opted for bottom turning.Making the wheel tacky and bonding pot 'Rs' down is do able with care.A damp thumb pressed around the base will produce an adequate con caved foot ring.Don't think I would opt for stoppers myself but customers seem to go for them and I'm nout but pragmatic.

"Does it pour" (A point of view)

'Customers' bless em,skirt round asking this very question,and I'm not talking flagons now or even tea pots.I mean stuff that doesn't appear to have function.'Studio'pottery was originally a loose definition of non factory wares which contrary to industrial ware,underwent a lower first firing(bisque or biscuit)and then a second (glost or glaze)firing.A high first firing burnt much more of the 'gunge'(organics & gases)from the body(a mix of clays and other meaningful ingredients) It gives problems having a non porous body for glaze to 'suck' to but is largely overcome by spraying,hence its perfect but clinical look(bog pans & such!).

Lately 'Studio' has crept in to the lexicon to mean 'non functional',you know 'posh' pots that look good against a white wall with a spotlight on and conversely don't pour,hold your Wheatabix or go under the bed! Snobbery? not a bit of it.I've personally both welcomed and embraced it.If there is a trace of bias in me(& I'm a bit left of centre) it's because I'm a hardened trained thrower schooled in how to produce spouts at given angles & 'vortex'considerations,..It's loosen yer corset time!

What should turn it for you is whether you posses 'Artistry or not.You most certainly must engage the beast of 'Art' or die a boring potter. As a professional potter,the final realisation for me was survival.The first influx of indifferent cheap wares for the 'Tat' industry,suddenly woke up our fellow contemporary makers in foreign climes,namely China in particular."Competition!! excellent"(many better than I'll ever be) .

Studio ware for me was genuinely not exploitational but a wonderful opportunity to expres what I felt was my humble art in ceramic and more saliently,being able to ask a fair price for it without comparisons.I confess I'm a little cynical about those who indulge in studio as an excuse for an inability to throw or hand build a basic cylinder,but that could be my prejudice some might say arrogance,you know,that one should be a Rembrandt to have the sincerity to do a Picasso??Ergo,should it pour?-"Hell no"but if it has a spout,-"Too bloody right it should,and properly!

Market place

O.K.Another drone on for the 'anoraks'(blame the children remember).It strikes me when people see the piles of recycled clay on plaster blocks,there are two reactions.Stick yer finger in it & enquire as to what it is.( kids are convinced it's chocolate & edible!

Do you know what, i reckon we potters invented recycling! I do know of a commercial pottery who refuse to reclaim their scrap on the basis that employing someone to do actually do it was cost prohibitive! It is claimed the oriental potters of yore would prepare and pit store clay for the coming generations and consequently use clay prepared by previous generations. I have to say ,though I'm ready to 'poo poo'many a profundity this particular claim is based on fact.In my opinion the quality of aged & sweetened clay is unequivocal.I never throw fresh clay unless pushed,it just doesn't respond in the same way!

Thought I'd throw goblets to-day. I would never have attempted a one piece throw without scrutinising my 'Guru' the great Jim Creswell (i bow in admiration) who could throw a 10" cider goblet in two breaths!

I guess if you consider the task as two pots in one,you've got it ! Throw a 'conical' mound,divide it & create base and thick stem,develop bowl,return to stem,thin out bowl and so on.The finesse of the finished goblet is i think achieved at the turning.Set up a coned 'chuck' and turn out your stem and i create a simple con caved Base.I like enhancing the 'Knuckle' of the stem with an old broken fluting tool that moulds the knuckle into a neat ball. Before and after shots illustrate this.

Market place

'knobs & all'

The 'offspring' tell me i should impart more "doing pottery stuff".So how about the other days 'Knobs & All' exercise ? (must stop putting 'quotation marks' to everything !..and exclamations!).Knobs & all was gleaned from an American potter who used the delightful expression to describe throwing a lidded pot in one go.

Throw a cylinder(in this case 12oz)with just enough thickness in the rim to close it up as if it were a bottle then seal it totally.The captured air should now give you enough resistance to push down and develop a 'dome'.By now the heat from my 1,500 watt lamps (quite unnecessary,but helps!)has expanded the air giving extra oomph! The trick now is to arm yourself with a wooden tool or any squared off piece of wood,in this case about 1/4 " and gently press into the pot (wet) where there will be a division of pot and lid.Keeping up?..Usual procedures now to leather hard(us veggies prefer 'Cheese hard') Don't forget to put a pin hole in the dome to let the pressure out or POP!

Turning...make a suitable chuck,pot in Topsy turvey and turn your base foot ring.When completed,flip the pot over(right way up ),trim and with a needle,cut through on the lower part of the indent until both lid & base separate.If you're a cleaver Bunny you will have a flat gallery on the base and a clever inset flange on the lid that with a bit of 'tweeking' should make a satisfying fit in the pot,'Knob's & all ' !!

market place

Thought I'd better show the said sink.Finally found space for the 5 wheels!(i know,sounds greedy)They were after all sourced from those very dying schools.But for my faithful aging 'Alsager' they are all finally earning their keep.One for turning and the others for students.

As a sole maker it can be very lonely not being able to share ideas and flag up inspiration,but i have found having students in out of hours lessons helps.I've been enormously humbled and astounded by some of their imagination and enthusiasm.here's some of the few. I guess blogging is a way of feeling you are in contact with the world and its dog?

Even the walls look less loaded lately.

In a funny way I'm most pleased with my huge old 'Doulton' scullery sink which easily accommodates two or more buckets and had washing.The water is harvested rain water delivered either by a large bore 22mm(and i said i don't do mm)pipe which will rapid fill gallons in seconds and a hospital type lever tap,great when you've clay up to your elbows!I sound so sad to be exited by this.

Joy of joy to be able to use the pug(the pug mill mixes softer and harder clays then extrudes it)which i simply couldn't access.Along with a safe spray booth a 'leave it all out' glazing station and my beautiful middle European log burner...yea.

Cleared the bench for unloading a kiln and reminded myself what a lucky bunny i am with the new studio.The new work surface can clear to a full 10' x 4'(sorry can't think in m mms)To be fair,after 30 years I've had some 5 or so studios and that's a posh word for the first 'shed' mum & dad allowed in the garden.Then a barn,small corner shop,the old 'Gig' house here and finally believing if i can make pots,mend my own shoes ,building a new purpose built studio

from foundations up should be a walk in the park!!HA

My children thought me cool owning some kind of venue for band,conjuring up images of midnight music sessions,other dads had lawnmowers in their sheds!(come on GIG,you know,19th century,2 wheels,horse,cart!)I was very fond of it and it served me well but i can't believe nearly all the kit we had in there spread out into the new studio with no real spare space.Sitting on the wheel my head hit the ceiling.

Glancing at the shelves is a reminder of what probably typifies the eclectic nature of much of the stuff you are asked to make.

A nice board or two of same height,same diameter pots makes for a much more economical (if not aesthetically pleasing!)load.At biscuit(first firing)this kind of pot can be stacked rim to rim possibly 4 or 5 high,more if yer daring.

After giving birth to the blog with such enthusiasm,i got a reality check when the large kiln (well large enough for my purposes)miss behaved on an expected end fire of 12,max 14 hours took 18 before i concluded i must have a burnt out element!..no pyro on this one (pyrometer,device for reading temperature)No sleep and a busy day ahead did make me think when I'd get time blogging?The kiln shown is a classic 'Bitsy' one,where you have lots of little bits & pieces for every one.

Welcome!

Not so much as a chance to inflate my ego prattling on about me,more a rewarding realisation there appears to be a wealth of people out there with a genuine fascination as to what goes on in the world of various makers-specifically pottery.It seems to be something we've all done at school but after the loss of all the 'craft' orientated studios and workshops in them,our knowledge of how it actually happens is slowly becoming as mysterious as how to write letters in 'real writing'!

As a 'professional' potter,i can't deny the air of publicity will hopefully do some good if only to let the world and its dog know i live and breath on the edge of my marsh! As a largely self taught potter (but for a number of years under the magnificent Jim Cresswell'an ex Lucy Rie/Hans Coper student) my knowledge was harvested over some 40 odd years of endeavour.

Any apparent facts or statements in my ramblings had best be taken with due caution! I have frequently employed the American empirical 'suck it and see'method!

At least one person in my life said i was a nice approachable guy(well yea,it might have been my mum!) So i feel free to contact me vie 'e' mail.Questions or just brief chats,I'm not 'Geekie'about computers nor can i find regular time for it, but i will eventually respond.....Welcome to my world.

Sculptrix put me up to this!!