Size of Relief

36 hours before we open to the public and the last load of special pots goes in the kiln. My favourites these, handmade in France and biscuit fired over there in my little raku kiln, brought back for glazing and the second firing.
So it was – shall we say a bit of a downer – when the kiln packed up 2 hours into the firing cycle. Kaput. Zilch.
Dylan at Northern Kilns saved the day. He talked me through the diagnostics and I discovered that the contactor had failed. I got a spare from the local electrical wholesaler, fitted it, and now we’re back in business. Hence the big sighs of relief as the figures climbed on the temperature display.

The Owl & the Pussycat went to See…..

…..The Boat Project.   Well, they can now, because they are out of the kiln intact. Double-click the images to enlage them:

O & P will be at Thornham Marina as part of the Emsworth Art Trail exhibition on Monday 7th May. The rest of the time they will be here at the studio.

The Heat is On

My toe is fine, my head has healed (don’t ask), and I have a new camera, so all is well with the world. Only a week now until the Arts Trail, and mild panic has set in. With reason maybe, as most of my special pots were made from a delivery of clay which proved to be faulty, warping far too readily when fired.

I’ve managed to build up some other stock, even if it is a bit last-minute. Hence these items being fast-dried as the kiln cools from the previous firing, and an extra stock of terracotta which only needs one firing.

Malicious activity? – but it isn’t.

My last blog had an unintended extra  – some sort of advertising which I didn’t put there. My apologies to those of you who are reading the blog; I now need to find out where this came from and how to block it.

Update, a few minutes later:

It’s not malicious. Seems that with the ‘free’ version of WordPress, which I’m using, the price you pay is to have occasional and randomly selected adverts slipped into the blog. I’ll probably upgrade to the paid version to avoid this, although the transfer is not seamless and I may have to re-submit a lot of my content. I’d be interested to know if any readers of the blog have found the ads tiresome?

Not Pots

Oh dear – no photo this time as my camera has died on me. What I had wanted was a photo of the window of estate agents Hazle & Co in Emsworth, who have kindly ‘adopted’ us as part of the Arts Trail publicity, with some pots on display.  I am very well disposed towards David Hazle and his son Matt. Theirs is an independent local business established in 1964 and reliant on an exceptionally high and well-deserved reputation. David pulled out all the stops to find us the perfect house in 1985, when his ‘chain’ competitors showed indifference at best, and I’ll never forget that.

So Far, So Good

Participants in the Emsworth Arts Trail have been invited to submit a piece of work with a marine theme for an exhibition on launch day, 7th May, at The Boat Project at Thornham Marina. I’m working on this model which is almost ready for  biscuit firing,  to be followed by the  glaze firing.  That’s assuming it survives that far, and just now, as dry raw clay, it is very fragile.The poem references the Boat Project, a quite remarkable construction of a sailing boat  from donated pieces of wood – old tennis rackets, chairs, wooden toys,  and so on. Click here to view  the Boat Project website.

Emsworth Crafts on Easter Saturday

Saturday 7th April, is the next Emsworth Crafts market. Just now I am nursing a sore toe after minor surgery, but I hope to be fit enough tomorrow to load up the car ready for an early start on Saturday. If so I’ll be taking some new work with me, including this planter made using an inner-tube as a former