Preparations have started

It may still be a long way off until I fire next, but far away from that winter date; on a beautiful hot summer's day, I've just had the soft wood for the firing delivered and have stacked it close to the kiln. It's a good feeling, knowing that the kiln is all ready to go. :-))

Back from Hatfield

Last weekend I was down exhibiting at Art in Clay at Hatfield house. Excellent event and great to catch up with folk and spend some chilled evenings with friends.The weather was fantastic which made the whole event even better.

 The Stand at Art in Clay

Sunset over the campsite and show on Saturday night.

I'm off down to Stratford-Upon-Avon this Sunday to demonstrate as part of Warwickshire open studios with Claire Brierley http://www.claire-brierley.co.uk/. The weather looks fine and warm so should be a great day. Yesterday was spent collecting another van load of seasoned split ash for the next firing which is now neatly stacked in the wood store.

Hopefully the firing's soft wood should be arriving next week and then all I have to do is start making . Saving the best bit till last :-)

I recently returned from this years Earth and Fire event at Rufford Country park. As usual there was some fantastic work on show and great to catch up with folk. The weather was a little better than the forecaster's had predicted although the wind had to show up (Something which I would normally embrace), and make all our nerves jangle for a couple of days. It's now preparation time for Art in clay at Hatfield House 5-6-7th July

Earth and fire stand looking a little wind swept

Home for the duration :-)

I few examples of the new work which I'll be showing at Art in Clay. Hopefully see you there.

Well, it's been 4 weeks since the firing in the Wysing kiln which went very well. We were lucky enough to have some fantastic dry and warm weather which made it even better, my last 3 firings its been rubbish, either pouring with rain or snowing.

It's been a bit chaotic here over the last few weeks as undergrads set up for degree shows and post grads for assessments, but I've finally managed to take and sort out a few images from the firing. 2 weeks ago I also took part in the Ceramics in Charnwood Ceramics market in Loughborough town centre which is in its 3rd year and is organised as part of craft and design month.

 This body of work was made specifically for this firing and are all lidded boxes. They range in size from around 65cm tall to about 30cm tall.

 I'll be exhibiting some of these at Earth and fire at Rufford Country park on the 21st to 23rd of June and at Art in Clay at Hatfield house on the 5th - 7th July.

 All pieces have been handbuilt using a course high iron crank body and then either a semi porcelain casting slip or a black engobe applied.

Here are a few images of the packing:

 A nice domestic scene of the night shift. Kitchen on the left and some comfy chairs.

 The first glimpse of the pack!

Firing next week!

All the new boxes are bisqued and ready to transport down to the Wysing Arts Centre kiln next Thursday. Looking forward to this firing. Lovely kiln site in the middle of the country side. We are extending the fire box slightly for this pack to get larger coaling area. I am not wadding these boxes in the conventional way but instead the feet will sit on squares of plaster board which works very well as wadding, this should give them a little more even support. We will be packing the kiln on Thurday and then firing from early Friday morning through till Sunday afternoon. If you're in the area pop in and say high.

This morning i'll mainly be splitting Oak!

I've already begun to plan for the next firing of the Loughborough anagama, hopefully late autumn. I've managed to find a supply of Oak offcuts from a chainsaw sculptor working locally, and collected the first load last week (probably enough for a firing!). The wood is green (which I'm thankful for as it is far easier to split that way), and in large pieces, so this morning it was out with the log splitter and made a start splitting and stacking it to dry in the wood shed. I'm getting another load on Tuesday so needed to make some space. The images below don't really give a good indication of how large some of the pieces are but it took a good couple of hours to produce the stack in the second image.

Before:

After:

I've also started making work for the next firing of the Wysing anagama which I'm hoping to do in late May/early June. Having recently fired the Loughborough kiln and had a lot of work that I'm happy with from it, I've decided to make a new body of work specifically for the Wysing firing. They are all lidded boxes hopefully with the same flavour as my thrown work but all handbuilt. Some will be black and some white with whatever else the firing bestows. :-)

To give some indication of scale the tallest of these is about 75cm.

Grab the popcorn

A short film which documents the last firing.

(There is no sound associated with this film).