- and here they are! The first of my wild strawberries - all growing in the gaps between the block paving. They are being guarded by the garden gnome that my daughter made when studying for GCSE art -25 years ago. It's had a bit of damage over the years but is still standing!
I am Vice chair for East Riding Artists - a group set up to encourage visual artists in East Yorkshire. I am trying to get the group more active - to arrange visits to other artist's studios and to participate in communal events. During Lockdown we had talks by artists via Zoom which were very popular.
So yesterday I arranged for them to come to Fangfoss to do some work in clay and some sketching around the village. Twenty people turned up for the afternoon and it was lovely to see everyone again after Lockdown. They had a short tour round the pottery, made some ceramic leaves and did some lovely art work.
We've just spent a lovely couple of days in West Yorkshire around the Hebden Bridge area - primarily to take a few more pots to the Northern Potter's exhibition in the Water Street Gallery at Todmorden. The exhibition is called "Earthworks".
Our "strata" mugs have been very popular and they had sold out. We have also sold a very large jug and a large bowl, so things are looking good. The exhibition has another two weeks to run.
This is the second part of the moon vase construction. The two bowls have been joined together and now Gerry is turning the top.
Eventually he will turn a hole in the Moon Vase to make the top. Originally this would have been the bottom of the bowl!
Gerry is making a few Moon Vases for Potfest in Scotland.
He makes two large bowls, which have very thick rims, on the wheel .
When the clay is leather hard, he puts the two bowls rim to rim and joins them with slip and lets them settle in.
Tomorrow he will put the pot on the wheel and turn the middle (where the rims meet) until they flatten out to make one large round pot.
He tries to make the middle the same thickness as the rest of the pot otherwise when it is glazed, this part will absorb more of the glaze and it will look thicker and different.
The shed door where we keep the packaging materials was left open, and unknown to us (at the time) a robin started to make a nest there.
The robin kept taking leaves into the shed. Here he is on the roof.
He wouldn't have been able to get in or out, so Gerry cut a hole in the shed door (top right).
He has spent the whole day carrying things in and out.
And here he is admiring his handiwork!
But it is too dark....
I made it from Crank clay, which has fired too dark , making the layers indistinct.
It is meant to represent the layers of soil in the earth, with rocks and debris in it.
This week I am going to make it again with a whiter clay......
When you are a potter you are constantly reminded that raw materials are a finite resource - when they run out - that's it! Then you have to find a new supply or an alternative. This is what has happened to us this week - the usual supply of feldspar has run out and a different batch has been sent. This has meant a lot of testing to see if it has the same properties as the old feldspar. Gerry put lots of tests throughout the kiln and luckily it has turned out the same as the old feldspar.
He also put in a test plate with overlapping glazes on top to see what the effects were. He wants to use some of these on some platters.
Whenever I am out in the garden a little robin comes and keeps me company. He comes down to me really closely and watches. Even when I'm just having a cup of tea or reading a book he will be there.
It did start to rain - bang on 12 noon when the weather forecasters said it would and just as we were about to go to the Open Garden at Linden Lodge. We still went though.
And it has rained all this afternoon and is still raining now. It's the first substantial rain we have had for a week.
Gerry and I were down at the Park today and were surprised to see that some of the seeds we spread on the specially prepared areas had germinated, and that the plants have come through. It is so dry with big cracks appearing in the ground and so cold we weren't expecting this to happen - but obviously nature has it's way.
Some of the flowers, I think, are called Water Avens - they are really small - only about 5cm tall, but very pretty. There were some bluebells, cowslips, buttercups and cow parsley - all struggling and keeping close to the ground, but at least they ewere there!
