Running out of space.

At the moment we are preparing for our next firing, as you can see from this pic our shelves are stacked with pots. These are Hugh's mug's & coffee cups, he has done so many handles for this firing & these are only some of them, poor Hugh.

These are some of my tulip vases & a batch of Hugh's bird feeders. I have moved to the next size up in the tulips, this will be the 3rd stage in them & hopefully they will work out well.

Here is another new shape I've tried for this firing, these are a batch of lamp bases. Had fun throwing these, the bigger the lump of clay the more fun it is :)

These are the medium size fan vases & our straight vases with plenty of banding to make sure that the granite glaze stays on the pot.

This last pot was a bit of fun :) plus a tribute to Alan & his frogy pots. The firing is planned for Wed the 9th so I will get back to you with the after pics soon.

Woof.......

The boys & I had to make a run for it today in the neighbouring field as I think wasps have made a home there.

Balain wanted a nosey at something in the grass & when I looked I thought it was deer poo with a lot of flies round it (as Balain is quite partial to deer poo) but when he went over to investigate & I followed to stop him from eating it, we both realised it was loads of wasps round a hole in the ground.

Don't think I've ever seen Balain shift so fast, plus I wasn't that far behind him but running in long grass with wellies on aint that easy.

Meanwhile Murphy missed all the excitement as he was off still looking for a ball I had thrown for him. Don't think we will be walking over that way for a while.

Inspiration all around us.

This summer in the fields around the pottery where I go walking with the dogs there has been so many nettles but I came across these ones getting munched by loads of caterpillars.

Now a couple of weeks since the last pic we have so many beautiful butterflies, nice swap for a load of stingy nettles :)

Not sure what type is what but if there is any people out there who is, could you maybe leave a note & let me know. Especially this third pic as the colour's were stunning.

There is just so many picture's to be taken, this gorgeous thistle with this busy bumble bee doing its thing.

& last but not least the Fox glove that has shown its bloom so elegantly this year. With all this beauty all around us, it sure isn't difficult to be inspired.

Making clay.

Here is Hugh emptying the slop buckets with the left over clay & the pots that didnt quite make it to make our first mix.

Look at all that lovely clay :) just asking to be made into pots.

This is the next batch which is the new mix which is made up of Hyplas 71, Hymod AT (these are both Ball clay's), China clay & Nepheline Syenite. The Nepheline Syenite works well for making the wood ash stick to the pots better.

The next job is pugging, this takes a while. Think the part time work I done in factory's while seeing myself through Uni was good experience for pugging as being able to switch your brain off & becoming a drone help's. lol I dont mind pugging, quite nice to switch off & day dream for a bit

& finally here is our clay all nicely mixed, pugged & stacked in our old freezers which are great for storing clay. We stack our slop mix seperate from our new mix & use the slop mix first & let the new mix sour.

Some pots from the last firing.

This first pic is of a handled bowl that I done. You might have seen this shape before from Alan's blog as it's a shape that Alan normally done. It is one of a batch of ten that I was pleased with the results. Some were glazed only on the inside & others all over.

This is one of the first flan dishes that i tried, found the shape easy enough but will need to practice my combing.

Here is a combination of myself & Hugh's pots, the four beakers are Hugh's & the jug is mine.

Took advantage of the sunshine today & photographed some of the pots outside as it shows up the glaze & decoration nicely. The cut handled bowl & casserole pot are Hugh's & the salad server at the front is mine.

Here is a collection of myself & Alan's tulip vases done in the granite glaze. This is a shape that is popular in the shop so it was important that we could replenish the little stock we had left of them. Both myself & Hugh are enjoying opening the kiln & seeing the pots we have never tried before, it's a nice feeling when it works & even better when sell fast. :)

Hungover firing.

I got back to work on Tuesday while Hugh was finishing packing the kiln, nice tight pack. We fired on Wednesday, unpacked on Fri & I'm pleased to say it was a success.

The first pic is the front pack & the second is the back. There's been plenty of new pots for me to try plus a few new shape's for Hugh too, will post some pic's of them soon.

Why ive been such a bad blogger.

Well it's the festival season again & I've been off seeing the best band's, dj's & friends while sunbathing in the great Scottish weather & dancing the night's away. The first picture is of myself & my friend Kirsty on the big wheel at T in the Park in Kinross, Perthshire.

There where 85,000 people a day at the festival, this pic gives an idea of the scale of it.

This is a pic of the main stage where I seen so many great acts including me & Alan's band of '08
Elbow.

Some great art work aswell, came across these randomly in the middle of a field & thought they were fab.

Always fancied having a go at some spray painting.