Martin Dickens 12:29 PM (15 minutes ago) 

Monday morning and a determination to to spend a moment to blog , otherwise why did I commit to one ! 

   Here's the irony, I lead an idyllic life style doing what I dreamt of doing since my teens,,,and yet!! Done the kids lunch boxes,walked them to school,bin bags & letters on the way, returned to feed chickens, dog & cats (not me yet ) washing up needs doing , car needs oil, downstairs rooms need tidying & hovering....Oh, here we go, 9.50 pottery opens at 10.

   Now , throw some pots,,,,well, no. Need to chop some fire wood and get some heat up (-3 this morning ) 

   Turn on radio 4 ...Woman's hour ; a report on ' Fashion week ' from those bright Young things at Central St Martins, An interview with Suzie Bubbles ( who she ? ) just returned from New York and positively ' bubbling ' as she minces amongst her fellow ' Fashionisters ' as my radio vision imagines her receiving a limp hand greeting or a double air kiss. Old and bitter, no. Old & cynical , maybe , Old and reflective, yep !

     I don't wanna dispel the romantic image I give when being entertained and asked " so, what do you DO ! " The devil in me wants to say " Gynaecologist " or '' I'm an MI5 agent and now have to eliminate you ! " But ' Potter ' seems to have the desired effect for those needing a bit of an ' esteem boost ' amongst the chattering middle classes.

     Miserable ol bu***r, I do hope not. Fortunately I've been told I can be Fun , witty and great company ( or did they mean CAN be ?? ) None the less, as I said before , blogging is about all us like minded givers and receivers of words , sharing information and experiences and hopefully getting some nourishment from it....be it a warm response to this by just one person saying ' Ye Gods , I thought I was alone !!

     Pottery is fan, bloody, tastic and I would never not want to do it. Would I change it , Perhaps.

     After I've checked and answered e-mails, scratched my head over what would be of the slightest interest to blog about, mixed up buckets of glaze in cold water, recycled a batch of clay and dusted the pot shelves It'll probably be time to pick the children up from school, make dinner and do the bath, teeth and bed routine, ... Maybe I'll throw a pot next week ! 

     P.S. Blogs Must have pictures !!! Reluctantly uploaded a pic of the dusted shelves. Gone for the cluttered store room look as I've run out of space and no customers to impress with the one pot per spotlight look x 

Firstly you have two firings to put a pot through,..Biscuit ( or Bisque ) and Glaze ( or Glost ).If y are embarking on a Bisque. You MUST ensure the ware is thoroughly dry.A crude test is to offer the base of the pot to your cheek and if it feels cold it will be damp and your lovely pots will explode BOOM!!
Next, you should have a base shelf or Bottom 'Batt'. Better circulation and avoids dripping glaze spoiling the kiln structure.Always place smaller,flatter pots first so the kiln loads from smaller to the largest wares,this avoids unstable weight build up on tall 'Props' which are not always available for ginormous,awkward shaped pots any way.
Only in a Bisque firing can you touch other pots. In fact experienced potters will mostly throw their pots to a throwing gauge so you have same height and diameter pots to put 'rim on rim' and its o.k. to place other pots within pots ( don't forget they are there when you unload ! ) ) so long as they are not tight or stuck within each other. Biscuit pots are going to lose ,chemical' water and will shrink between 12% / 15%. Always use a triangular configuration of props per shelf ( a three legged table ain't gonna wobble ! ) one to the back and two to the front ( see your cones & ware through the 'spyhole then ! )

What the hell are 'cones' ? ...Well now. It's crucial you know the heat of you're kiln !!! Experienced potters can make a pretty good judgement simply by looking at the colour of the heat,! 1000o C is kinda cherry red (just short of this temperature is roughly yer biscuit temp ) , 1120o C 'orangy red and so on. If you do not have a pyrometer installed ,( a thermocouple probe within the kiln leading via compensating cable to a a read off dial outside ) then your last,and best method in my opinion, are pyrometric cones.Most commonly used ones used in this country now are known as 'Orton' cones. Best because the tell you the heat done to ware,that is , like baking a cake, a knife pushed into the cake gives you a "is it 'cooked' on the inside" evaluation rather than what the 'ambient' temperature is,often quite different from top to bottom of kiln and near & far from an element....Keeping up so far ?

Now cones come with their temperature values stamped on them. 04 =1070o C 03 =1101o C etc. You need, for bisque, 06, the closest we have to what we want ( 1011o C ) Manufacturers will tell you you need three , a waning cone , a firing cone and a 'oops' I've over fired it cone ( I wonder why ?..£££ ) two will do ,pre and actual. They say buy proper cone holders but if you carefully press them into a piece of clay at the right angle ( dictated by the cut angle at the foot of the cone ) and pierce the clay full of 'matchstick' sized holes , they will survive the firing. The idea is to place them on a shelf or prop to be visible in the kiln through the 'spyhole'. The 'pre' cone or 'warning' cone will tell you to be vigilant and give you just enough time to make a cup of tea ! then its keep an eye open for the fire cone.What they do is begin to melt on temperature.In fact a melted cone is an over fired cone. You are looking for a 'just bending' moment for utter accuracy! So your warning cone will indeed melt flat and you must catch the fire cone at that 'wilt' stage and turn the kiln off !!! or you re going to at best over fire it and at worst have a complete meltdown if you forget it and go to bed! (Yep, I've done it once and believe me EVERYTHING can and does melt given enough heat til the elements give up ) There is a slightly different procedure from this point with a glost kiln,more on that another time.

The bit I haven't given you yet is how do you get the heat up to your desired temperature ?
If you have a small simple kiln there is usually at least one 'Sunvic' dial or temperature controller. This is usually marked in % or 'low' 'med' 'high' Biscuit must not exceed a temperature clime, of say 100oC an hour! ( or 'boom' again ) This allows the 'chemical water' to leave the pot safely. Vere on the side of safety and rather fire a bisque slower than too fast. Some potters if presented with a kiln loaded with large pots will pre fire 'low' over night then up it the next day. Usually its enough to turn the dial to low for a couple or three hours then med for the same time and finally high until top temp.I have % on my Sunvic and have a regime of an hour each on 25% 45% 65% 80% 100%. YOU MUST keep the bung brick out until at least cherry red to let the boiled off water to escape the kiln then replace it.Another trick here is to hold a mirror close to the open bung or spy hole and if it steams up with water leave it open to continue steaming.

Finally leave you kiln to cool for at least as many hours as it took to fire up.Very roughly 9 to 14 hours according to size of kiln and wares and then only remove bung fist for an hour or so Then 'chinck' the door a tweak ( vital not to cause a draught , particularly on glazed pots ! ) and slowly build up opening the door in increments.If you had a pyro, this would never be before 300oC.( domestic ovens are around 200oC top for perspective )

CONGRATULATIONS you now have perfect biscuit pots ( course you have ! )

Getting fired up

Since I've been on a low 'tick over' most functions pottery wise have also been on hold.Maintaining just enough heat with low watt, stat controlled tube heaters in the vicinity of drying pots avoids frost damage.(basic school science..clay=lots o water, extreme low temperature = ice , ice = expansion , expansion = zillions of 'bits' o pots !) Trust me, you let this kind of traumatic trauma happen just once! A few boards of pots about and your looking at a lot of time & £.
We started children's classes last week,it seems children are more resilient to frost damage than pots! Getting old Bertha fired up ( the pot belly stove in the teaching studio ) and keeping her fed with split logs has been one of may challenges whilst spinning around on crutches! My lovely faithful crew of little 'Mudlarks' duly turned up and put a smile on my face for an hour or so . I have to say they were the most critical about me when they realised I'd slacked on firring kilns and wailed in unison "so why haven't you fired our pots !?) Adult classes started this week and as a child oriented foster carer I of course love children's class but a couple of hours with kindred spirits and a glass of the same ( a nice dry red Shiraz does it for me!) kinda rows my boat and is a night out .
Well I'm going to try and do all the back orders on glazing and over the next few days, fire a few kilns and quell the hoards of mutinous kids !

Happy New Year !

Hello world. Happy New Year!
I hope at least half your dreams come true।I think it did for a lot of children around here with at least eight inches of snow fall over night.Taking a picture of the old 'Gig House'end of the pottery put me in mind of some Swiss log cabin
Just in case there is some body out there reading this ( and I sadly have no evidence there is ! ) I need to make a heart felt apology for no blog activity lately. In the process of recovering from surgery to a leg I have been perfecting my balletic pirouettes whilst balancing precious pots from one part of the studio to another.Not an image to conjure with!( the elephant with a pink Tu Tu in Disney's 'Fantasia' was I'm afraid my one!)

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!