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!!