Pottery

Welcome Autumn

Brrrrrr it’s getting a bit chilly in the evenings now. We’ve also noticed the nights drawing in. We’ve had a lovely couple of weeks in the shop with lots of visitors. Which has cheered us up no end. August wasn’t as good as previous years, we had half expected it, but its still a bit worrying so it’s lovely to see lots of visitors in the shop again.
We’ve got to a good stage with our preparations for the NEC. I have in my mind what it’s going to look like now. I just need to put that into action. I’m a bit disappointed we can’t get away from the traditional table at the front and us behind, but the small size of our stall means that it’s the most efficient way to display as much as possible, and keep ourselves out of the way and not into the aisles. We haven’t got the budget to be spectacular, but I have some ideas that hopefully will make us look better than just a table with white cloth on. Anyway I’m not going to give to much away, so we will see later if I pull it off.

My large Father Christmas picture has sold . I was hoping to take it to Birmingham as a eye catching piece. I will hopefully get time to make another, well at least a similar one. But I did make a smaller snowman which hopefully I will be able to take. I’m quite chuffed with my happy smiling chap.

We are hoping to have some tickets soon to do a giveaway soon, so watch this space.

We are stocking up on Christmas goodies nicely, but with how good it’s been in the shop the last couple of weeks, it means that some of that has disappeared. I’m not worried as I still have 7 weeks of making to get in and I know the shop will drop right off very soon. The plan is to get all of the work, that needs to be drilled made asap, so Mr WD has time to drill it all and then all the coasters, gin stirers and slumped work will wait to the end as once it’s out of the kiln it doesn’t t need anything doing to it.

My pottery has been coming on. I LOVE LOVE LOVE throwing. My wheel comes out as often as time allows. I’m still struggling with glazing so quite a bit is still going in the wonky pot box, for sale. It’s doesn’t seem to last long, which is fabulous, people seem to love the idea of a wonky pot.

I’ve also just been exploring how to add or reshape pots once they are thrown, these need to be fired and then I can see properly if they are working. I can then try some more glazing techniques. I’m hoping soon I will find a style I like, that I can concentrate more on, but I’m still in the experimental phase at the moment.

It’s also weird when we visited our local museum in liskeard recently, to discover we are actually living very close to where a local well know pottery used to be. Tremor Pottery was quite famous and I must have visited as a child, as I have some of their pieces that I bought on holiday years ago. I need to get them out of my loft and check what I have. Strange how life seems to have come full circle .

Stay warm and keep safe, especially as we are expecting storm Agnes to hit at anytime. See you maybe in the shop or at the NEC, soon

Janice x

Gearing up for Easter

Leave a Comment / 2023 / Janice Ashworth

This weeks been nice and busy. There has been lots to do around the shop. We still haven’t finished all the cleaning, but I’m leaving the cobweb and spider eviction to Steve.

We’ve also been unpacking and putting out lots of new stock, that has arrived from our lovely Cornish makers. So now we’ve got lots of stunning clocks, lamps, mice, badgers and moles.

I’ve also been back using my long neglected glass kiln. We had an online order the other day for bee and flower bunting and I realised I only had one set left. It was a little bit of a wake up call, to remind me I needed to get a bit of wiggle on. I’ve been getting used to a little bit of a break away from making glass. I still love it, but sometimes I do need to step back a bit and recharge my batteries a little. But I’m back on it again and fully committed . So much so I decided I would make some pictures and candle holders. Using some lovely white and blue streaky glass to make cloudy skies and dark waves. I made 8 candle holders and 4 pictures. I have added reactive French vanilla chips to the bottom. By adding a turquoise fine frit around them, the two glasses react and gives a lovely dark line around the chips, which looks just like pebbles on a Sandy beach. Steve added some lovely wood bases to the pictures and they headed into the shop today.

It doesn’t mean I’ve given up with the pottery. I’ve been working on some ideas. I bought some different types of clay.I’ve been using white throwing clay. I don’t throw, but I wanted a smooth clay. But it’s been a bit to sticky and plasticky, so I bought some clay with grog in. It’s ideal for hand building. I used it for the penguin and the whale. But I’m not sure I liked the rough texture when using it. So I bought some scandi clay and some toasted clay. Both will fire in a buff colour and I don’t know what the glazes will look like on them, as I’ve only got a limited amount of glazes. I’ve particularly enjoyed using the toasted clay. It’s easy to use straight from the bag and doesn’t need to much drying before I can build things. It’s also got grog in, it but it’s very fine, it gives it strength but without the rough texture. There are quite a few bits now waiting to dry. Including another whale as the first one wasn’t even in the shop for 2 days before it sold. I have enjoyed making a second and will have fun glazing it different than the first. The little circles are texture stamps. Once I’ve fired them, I can use them in future to put texture on the clay.

I added texture on this fish plaque that I’ve literally just finished making. I think I’m going to enjoy adding texture on things in the future as this was a lot of fun to make.

Can you spot the two holes one by the eye and one by the tail. I am hoping if this work, I can screw it to the wall. I may have a small problem though, I again forgot to measure before getting to far and it’s going to be a tight squeeze getting it into the kiln opps! I really must stop my imagination getting to carried away and forgetting the practicalities.

Well hopefully we are all now ready for the Easter rush.I hope the weather is good to us 🤞 maybe we will see you in the shop soon.
Janice x

Gearing up for Easter Read More »