Reasons to be cheerful 5

Seeing a whole load of pots come safely out of the electric kiln is rewarding. They are all going to be glazed in the aqua colour and are destined sometime for Roots Farm Shop near Northallerton.

The shop buys pots with mice on, so each mouse has to have iron oxide brushed on and then wiped off to show up all the details. Then each mouse has a coating of wax applied to it so that when the pot is dipped in the glaze, the glaze doesn't stick to it and runs off. It's time consuming work, but looks good when finished.

We use the same method to make the emblems stand out on pots.

The above pictures show Gerry applying the wax to the pots and some finished pots with the emblems showing up well.

Reasons to be cheerful. Part 4

It's lovely to go out for a walk in our village now. There is no traffic and it is so peaceful. We walked down the road for about half a mile, without meeting anyone or seeing any cars, then turned down a bridleway which led alongside some fields, through a farm and back into the village. The trees were just beginning to get blossom on them, and spring violets were hiding at the bottom of hedgerows. Buzzards were flying above us being pestered by crows. "It gave us a much needed sense of normality in what seems like an increasingly toxic world".

Reasons to be cheerful Part 3

Well,

Today we spent the morning organising the pottery and putting things away. It looks tidier now.

We had someone phone up and ask us to leave some eggcups outside the pottery for him to collect - so we did a bit of business today......

And someone came to collect a replica medieval oven lid that is going down to a museum in Cornwall.

Reasons to be cheerful - part 2

We unpacked the large gas kiln today - and 2 reasons to be cheerful! The first is that the tests we did on the oatmeal glaze were successful - the glaze fluxed well and so it looks like we can now start using it in the large gas kiln.

The second reason is finding out that the pots I made with the children at St Mary's school in Beverley have come out lovely. The children were only 8 and 9 years old and they have made a great interpreation of early Peruvian water jugs. of course they will have to wait a long time now to get them back, but they are worth waiting for.

Reasons to be cheerful!

Well, the corona virus is getting everyone down. As self employed potters, like many other creatives throughout the country our work has dried up. The shops, museums and other visitor sites we have supplied over the 40 years of us being potters have all closed down for the time being. All the exhibitions ands shows we were going to do this year have been cancelled.

But things are not all bad. The enforced time we have on our hands provides an opening for other things to do. So for  the next few months I am going to keep a diary in the form of this blog on the things we have done each day! Some may be boring, but there may be a few that are quite new and exciting!

So, this is the first thing we have done. In January we had the roof repaired so have now redorated the kiln room. A good job that needed doing.

Repairing the kiln

Gerry dressed in CSI gear is repairing the kiln this week. He is removing the old saffil fibre and replacing it with new panels. Then he is going to give the kiln a new floor and we'll be all be ready for another 10 years.....

A good clean out!

This week we made the decision to get rid of all the old slip casting moulds we have used over the last 40 years. We have tried to rehome them but have found it hard. We had lots of block and cases which you use to make working moulds. The Art department from York St John's University took a few and we have had to hire a skip to get rid of the rest.
We also have thrown out all the old moulds we used for making emblems on the outside of pots - everything from Snake Lane Run emblems to Millennium ones. What memories.....

Here is Gerry holding one of the hippo planters made from one of the moulds.