Ten years - What I've done in that time

It's been 10 years this year that I finished the DCCI’s Pottery Skills course in Thomastown. It seems like a good time to tell you about my history and what I’ve done in those years.

I did a ceramics degree in LSAD straight after school. I had planned on studying painting and becoming an illustrator of children's books but changed my mind after one week of ceramics. (This was during the days students tried out each discipline before deciding their chosen one). Limerick gave me my first proper experiences of throwing and it wasn’t long before I was hooked. During my time there, I learned how to develop an idea into a finished piece, something I have grown to appreciate over the years.

Then came my time in Thomastown. It was a fantastic and intense two years of learning everything needed to be a studio potter - from the glamorous (turning, testing and making glazes, playing with slip) to the less fun jobs (mopping the floor and cleaning out the settlement tank). It paved the way for future prospects.

I knew when I finished, I wasn't ready to set up on my own. I did an apprenticeship with the incredible Julie Ayton in Salisbury, supported by the amazing Adopt a Potter. I loved my time with Julie. I learned and experienced the day-to-day tasks of running of a pottery - admin, marketing, market applications and very importantly, teaching. I never wanted it to end! 

I ended up staying in Salisbury for over six years. After my apprenticeship, I worked at the local Arts Centre under Mirka Golden-Hann (Sadly the pottery is no longer there) and Messums West. 

Eventually, I took the jump and set up my own pottery in the north Dorset countryside in 2022. My studio was an old cow shed and far from perfect but it was mine! - a sloped floor, drafty doors, no running water and the odd mouse or two. There was so much nature there, more than I have seen anywhere else - rabbits, gold-crested newts, red kites, swallows, swifts, house martins… The list is long. 

I was selected for some of Britain's top pottery and craft fairs, Made Brighton, Potfest and Craft Festival to name a few, as well as local markets with Salisbury Arts Scene. 

I ran evening classes, teaching students how to throw, coil and hand build pots, slip decoration and glazing. They made the most amazing pieces (some of which you can see here in the student gallery). Some started as complete beginners and others already had some experience. I was blown away by some of the work they made and how much they improved in the time they were with me.

And now? I'm back in the north west of Ireland, looking for a studio to make and teach in. I'm doing up a shed at home until I can find somewhere big enough. I have ideas brimming away and am eager to get back making.

If you would like to say hello to me or see my pots in person, why visit one of the events I’ll be taking part in. You can find out where and when here.

Studio searching

As some of you might know, I took the big decision to move back home to Ireland last year. Over the past few months, I’ve been looking for somewhere to set up a pottery studio. It’s a difficult search, to find somewhere the has all my requirements (nothing fancy) and is also affordable long term.

I have visited estate agents, contacted business support groups and craft groups, individual craftspeople and independent businesses. For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been driving around talking the locals and seeing if I can spot a place myself.  

My search has been quite widespread so far, within a 30-minute radius of Waterford city, from Dunmore East to Tramore, from Kilmacthomas and Kilmeaden to Portlaw, from Mooncoin to Mullinavat.

I have spoken to lots of people in these communities, who work in the shop, are on the parish council or were recommended calling, and asking if they might know of anywhere. They have been very kind and helpful. Every so often a suggestion will lead me in a positive direction and even though these haven’t worked out, that person is keeping an ear out for me.

I have looked at several places but unfortunately, they weren’t suitable or would have worked but were out of my modest budget. This week I looked at a place near Dunmore East because I put a post up on the local Facebook group. The day before, an office space in the Airport Business Park.

It’s been good getting to know the area, to follow a road and see where it goes. Sometimes I end up near a beach and go for a walk. It’s good to take a break and get some fresh air, try and organise my thoughts and ideas.

I hope that after the many, many people who I have been in touch with, that someday soon someone will ring me up and say they have somewhere that will become my next pottery studio. It could be just around the corner.

The continued story of my Willow Vegetables

I’ve been making the Willow Veg Collection for nearly two years now. As the decoration has developed, I thought the form of the pieces needed developing too. A complex design needs a strong form as it can take a couple of hours to do the decoration (The tomatoes took 6.5 hours) and I felt the shape of the piece should reflect that in some way.

Since the blue and white patterns come from the old potteries, I thought the form should be inspired by them too. After a bit of research and googling, I found a Spode vase I liked. It’s simple yet sophisticated and timeless.

The first batch I made, I played with the proportions – tall and narrow; shorter and wider with a longer neck (I didn’t like that one as much). As the decoration of each one is unique, the forms will be too. For each batch I weigh out the same amount of clay so they are related to each other but that’s where the similarities end. The exact proportions and details are decided when I’m throwing them on the wheel.

With each batch, the little details become more refined. You’ll now find the type of vegetable written on the bottom. So far I have been doing this by inlay, the next ones will be done using sgraffito.

I really like where they are going.

Willow Vegetables

Last November I did the Potfest in the Pens Melton Mowbray market. Every year the organisers have a potter’s competition based on a theme for all of their shows; last year’s theme was Rooted in the past, Planted in the present. It’s completely voluntarily and a bit of fun.

For my pieces I wanted to make something based on my allotment and the fragments of pottery I’ve found while digging the earth over. If you’re signed up to my newsletter, you’ll have seen a photo of them. The rooted in the past comes from the fragments, copied directly the onto the vases. The planted in the present is from the vegetables that I and my allotment partner grow on our plot - beetroot, onion (no it’s not a leek) and parsnip.

The fragments of pottery are very nearly all blue and white patterned mass-produced bone china or porcelain apart from the odd piece of stoneware. Some are tiny fragments of glaze on a very thin layer of clay and some are larger pieces, up to 5cm, from the bottom corner of a mug or the rim of a plate. I’ve lost count of how many I’ve found and I’m still finding more after three years. There are quite a few pieces of willow pattern, unintentionally these were the patterns I used, and a few contemporary patterns like thick stripes.

I spent some time drawing a few of my favourite patterns and discovering which style worked best when contained within the shape of a vegetable. The decorating techniques are a mix of sgraffito and inlay using slip; the originals were made using decal transfers. I really enjoyed the challenge of figuring out which techniques to use for each of my chosen pattern and especially when both techniques were used - which one was going to be used where. I kept the colour the same too as another reference to the fragments.

They were such a success and I love them so much that I’m going to make more of them. I’ve been thinking of other vegetables to use. Just watch this space…

Starry Nights

I’m slowly adding new pieces to my Fields range. I have glazed the first batch of egg cups and will be coming out of the kiln in the next week or two. I’m trying to squeeze in as much making before I head off to Potfest Melton Mowbray in November. This week I made some more starry tealight holders.

This year I wanted to do something different with them, to improve the decoration and give them a different feel. In the past, I’ve planned out where each star will be, equally spaced around the tealight holder and every star is the same size. They had a structured feel. This year, I wanted them to be more energetic and natural. Each one is randomly decorated; no two stars are exactly the same size. I’ve added lots of dots for those faraway stars too. They’ve had their first firing and just need their glaze.  I hope you like them as much as I do.

A Happy Potter

After 6 months of searching and testing, my hunt for a transparent glaze is over. I had found a near perfect glaze about a couple of months ago. Well, when Andy Mason, the raku specialist, visited for the Messums Creative Raku Retreat I asked for his help. After a bit of tweaking and adjusting of the recipe, it works! (Thank you Andy) I’ve tweaked it a tiny bit more just to reduce the gloss. I like a shiny glaze but not too shiny. Anyway, here is the result. I made a slightly larger batch to test on an actual pot and I’m very happy. My next step is to make a 5kg batch of it for using on the pots, and to test it with a small amount of copper to create a green glaze. Copper is a dream to use and for me, it’s like the oxidation version of an iron celadon glaze.

Great Plans

It’s been a very busy few months, as always really. We’re coming to the end of our summer term at Messums Creative and it’s all go for me. I‘ve to get all of the pots bisque fired before the last classes next week; although making sure I get time for my own making amongst the busyness of work. And with that I am very happy to say I’ve finally started making my new range of work. I’m happy with how the first batch of mugs have come out. I’m still tinkering with my glaze and slip recipes to make them ‘sing’ but overall, very happy. The first batch of breakfast bowls are in the kiln being bisque as I write this and will be glazed on Monday.

I have great plans for the range with a selection of 14 shapes and sizes, most them are completely new forms. I might not get them all made before Potfest in early November (that’s my target date/potential launch date) but I’ll make as much as I can. I’m very excited. Without promising and disappointing anyone, my hope is to have four mug sizes: expresso, coffee, small tea mug and a large tea mug to get a little hint of what’s to come. Amongst all of this is also my plan to have four variations of patterning for each shape and size. I’m waiting for some tests before I start making the third and fourth variation.

I’ve shown the first mugs to a select few and gotten really useful feedback which has given me more ideas. The prototypes are on the shelves at work and the students have been saying really nice things about them which has been really good.

See, great plans. I hope I’ll have a bit more time for making over the summer holidays. I also want to make more tealight holders and bird feeders too.

My 5 Find a Maker favourites

Here is five of my favourite makers from the Find a Maker family, as part of my Instagram live with Sarah James. It could very easily be twice as long as there are so many amazing and talented makers part of the family.

Josie Walter - Being a potter, I couldn't not have a potter as one of my 5 favourites. I love Josie's work; the earthy and homely feel of the pieces, colour, energetic quality of line and that she draws vegetables and pigs on her pots. 

Annabet Wyndham - Annabet's jewellery is a combination of three of my favorite things, shape, texture and colour (especially blue and green). I really like that each piece is ever so slightly different, even in the sets.  

Clover Robin - I love the compositions of Clover's pieces, the simplicity of a scissors or gardening fork against a plain background and the complexity of her landscapes. The texture of the pieces give them that extra je ne sais quoi. 

Melissa Marie Leather - The quality of making blows me away, that each piece is stitched by hand is incredible. With strong forms, these are timeless pieces. I imagine they smell amazing too. 

Samantha Bryan - I love the character and humour of Samantha's fairies, the mischief they must get up to when her back is turned. Her imagination of creating the different fairy tools and apparatus is brilliant, especially as they are made using found and carefully collected objects. The attention to detail and stories that are given with each named fairy is great.

Hits and misses

This week has been a bit hit and miss. Let’s start with the ‘hit’. I decided to procrastinate while waiting for my glaze and slip tests to come out of the kiln. When talking with a close friend, I showed her a photo of the first pieces of my new range and she made a suggestion. Why not make pieces which sit at an angle? So yesterday I cut the bases off 4 vases I had thrown in advance, removed a wedge out of the side of the walls and joined them back together. It was a great learning experience of how to develop the making of them. I now know what the next step is. I’ve decided not to decorate and fire two of the vases. I’d rather recycle the clay and make better ones with better forms and detailing.

Now for the misses; I’ve hit a few technical roadblocks lately. I’m looking for a transparent glaze which fires to 1240C. I made lots of tests but unfortunately, none of them are that suitable. There are a couple of ones which are lovely with colour added to them. I’ll make up larger batches of them at a later point and test them out on small pots to see what they look like properly. I’ll keep looking for a transpareny so if you have any recipes, I’d loveto know.

I also had tests of my coloured slips come out of the kiln yesterday, to perfect the colour. Unfortunately, they didn’t come out great either. I have two ideas: 1) tests the same colours but reducing the amount of colour in the slip to see if that gives any nice results and 2) buy new stains from a different supplier. I’m going making the tests (called line blends) over the next few days. I had hoped that I’d be able to start making properly but I’m just going to have to wait a bit longer.

All that and I’ve also been getting my online shop ready for the next update which goes live on Tuesday evening. So lots to keep me out of trouble.

New year, new project

Well, it’s been a long while since I wrote a diary entry so I thought I’d better write another. It’s been a very busy few months, starting a new job, showing at MADE Brighton, making and lots more.

I’m starting the new year with designing a new range of work. Up until now, I’ve been firing my work in a gas kiln in a reduction atmosphere (This means that the oxygen supply is reduced so the flames take the oxygen from the glaze and clay rather than the air of the kiln) and am now firing in an electric kiln (which is oxidised). The slip I use for my leaf range doesn’t have the same life and warmth to it when it’s fired in an oxidised atmosphere. So rather than spending weeks and maybe even months trying and altering it to make it work, I’ve decided to take a break from making them. I hope I’ll come back to them one day.

 My new pieces are inspired by the parallel lines of agricultural fields. I love the way the lines show off the gentle curves and slopes of the rolling hills. I’ll be showing hints of what’s to come and the progress on my making to my mailing list and on my Instagram and Facebook pages. I hope you have a look. I’ve been playing with different tools for mark and line making on the work. I have a couple of favourites but it’s like chickens hacking. I can’t wait to see what they look like when they’re finished.

After I started at Messums Creative, I decided to make a small test tile of my slips to see how they would come out. I knew there would be a difference but most of them came out black to my surprise. The pieces still look good (I made a few little bowls and vases) but it’s colour I’m after. After figuring out why, it makes complete sense. I finally got round to making some line blends to reduce the culprit ingredient. It’s going to be a few weeks before I get the results back but I’m excited.

August Making and Future Plans

Things have been a bit busy for the past few weeks (apart from a relaxing two-week break to go back to Ireland).

I’ve started making pots for Christmas… in August. I’m going to be at Tutton & Young’s MADE Brighton in November, with Julie’s Christmas Open Studio not long after. With working four days a week, I’m making the most of my days off by making pots. First was a small batch of blue soap dishes, then breakfast bowls and next is my highly successful bird feeders. I’m looking forward to using the glazes at the Arts Centre for them, limited edition bird feeders here we come! There’s plenty of colourful glaze options to choose from and nice ones they are too. As well as my standard range, I also want to make a few new pieces, try out a couple of new ideas and develop or improve the designs on one or two pieces. These plans might happen, they might not. Really, I just want to get my hands on clay. It’s so much fun.

I’m settling in to making at the Arts Centre but I better not get too comfortable. My job at Salisbury Arts Centre will be coming to an end at the end of September. (Don’t worry, I’m not leaving Salisbury.) It can take a little bit of time to get used to a new place but in the last few months, I’ve realised how lovely it would be to have my own pottery studio. I don’t know when or where exactly this will happen but I’m looking forward to it already. It’s going to feel like spreading my wings… and then jumping off a cliff, a very scary thought.

What's been happening

It’s been a funny few months. A lot has happened since February.

I’ve played with a shino glaze on bottles; trying sgraffito and inlay with it again. My first attempts didn’t quiet work but I learnt a lot from them. The new pieces have turned out really well. I’ve been playing with the proportions and curve of the form too. Subtle differences can make a big different to the overall look of a piece. The subtlety of the glaze works really well with the striking graphic pattern, especially with the paper resist pieces. They are my favourite.

I haven’t been doing very much throwing lately as I’ve been back at work and teaching at Salisbury Arts Centre. Most of my making has been demonstrating to students. It’s nice getting my hands covered in clay, even if only for a few minutes at a time. We started teaching our Youth and Children’s classes a few weeks ago. It’s so nice seeing what they make and hearing their conversations. It’s the best end to my working week. Our adult classes started back this week too and it’s been all go all week.

After two years of making at Julie Ayton’s pottery, she’s finally kicking me out. I had an amazing time there and with Julie’s support, encouragement and critics, I’ve developed a range of pots that I’m proud of. I’m not going far and will be making from the Arts Centre Pottery for the next few months, until my job ends in the autumn. I’m still thinking about what’s going to happen after that.

In the meantime, it’s Julie’s Midsummer Open Studio this weekend and we’ll be getting the pottery ready this week; arranging the spaces, putting out pots, cleaning the yard and putting up the bunting. There’ll be colourful and elegant pots, lucious baskets and imaginative prints and artist’s books. I’m really looking forward to see old customers again, catching up with them after so long and hopefully meeting some new ones too. If you’re in the area, make sure to pop in and say hello.

Oven and soap dishes

My large oven dishes are now bisque fired (the first of the two firings, to 1000°C) and glazed, ready for their second firing (to 1280°C) over the weekend. Only a few will be fired due to the kiln pack and the other pieces that are being fired. After making them with false bases, I’ve decided to go back to making them whole and then altering them into an oval shape. It was very slow to make them with false bases. Joining the pieces together took ages. Getting the detailing right; and the decoration process was broken up. I know now and it was definitely worth a go.

Yesterday I finished making a couple soap dishes, humbug ones. I really liked the accidental one that came out of the firing last year so decided to make one on purpose. The contrast of black and white and of positive and negative is eye catching.

Laying out and creating the pattern with the strips of newspaper is fun to do. When I first started making them, I tried to keep the strips as even and straight as possible. I realised quickly that it’s easier said than done when using a scissors. I prefer the uneven thicknesses and crooked lines now. It adds character, a perfect imperfectness that is part of handmade objects. It gives a hint as to how the piece is made.

I’m changing and improving the way I make them all the time. I made a template for the dish shape.  It’s much quicker to make them now and I know that the shape, curve and size is right. I use the remaining decorated clay to make the feet; it reduces waste and adds extra detail. I’m always playing with the design of the feet. This time I cut out a curved shape in them to add a visual lightness; and so they are more in keeping with the shape of the dish too.

St Bridget's Day

Seems like a good day to start back at writing my potter’s diary, my name day.

Today is St Bridget’s Day and a year since I finished my Adopt a Potter apprenticeship with Julie Ayton. I’m spending my mornings in the pottery during this lockdown. This morning I started making a small batch of large oven dishes. I’m making them with false bases i.e. I throw the walls, roll out a slab of clay for the base and join them together after I have distorted the walls and decorated the inside of the base. Whereas before I used to throw them whole, cut out a willow shaped hole from the base and join it back together. It was a bit awkward to slip-trail the insides. It took a few goes to get the new weight of clay right. Tomorrow, depending on the clay, will be decorating, assembling and adding the lug handles.

Tea Light Holders, a Kick Wheel and more

Without intending to, it’s been 3 months or so since writing a diary entry. I got a bit side tracked by various things. A lot has happened since then. Very quickly there has been a trip back to Ireland, launching my online shop, selling at September’s Salisbury Arts Scene market, taking part in MADE Maker’s Online and launching my bottles and soap dishes that I kept going on about (they are very nice if I do say so myself and are available to buy from my shop); and started back at work at the Arts Centre. There’s been quite a lot of home-grown bean and tomato eating too.

Currently I’m trying to get my head around the less glamorous but very important side of being a potter: the business side. My time these days is spent researching things like marketing and promotion online; how to improve my website’s SEOs so google can find it easier.  Part of this is also figuring out the answers to the bigger questions: where do I want to go and how will I get there? What do I really want to make? It’s very easy to get distracted. Some of these things are quick to figure out, others will be things are a bit harder to answer.

With Christmas coming soon (It’s already in Salisbury!), I’ve been thinking of seasonal items to make, more tea light holders; pots that I’d really like to make like cake stands and how to bring my new pattern into an everyday range of work. Some of these have already happened and some will have to wait a little while. I spent Friday in the pottery, my first day throwing in what feels like ages. I sat at the kick wheel and threw a batch of tea light holders, with the fire on behind me keeping me warm. I love throwing on the kick wheel. I’m not completely sure why. Maybe it’s the sound it makes as I kick into motion or the fact that I’m more involved in the process; maybe it’s that is really comfortable to sit at especially with a fire behind me. Anyway my tea light holders are now drying out on the shelf after I decorated them this morning. They will then be bisque fired to 1000°C, glazed in transparent or celadon glaze and fired to 1280°C.

With fairs and markets going online as the real life shows are being cancelled. MADE Brighton has been cancelled. I was looking forward to it; the atmosphere, the lights, the colour and creativity of the other makers. However I will be taking part in December’s MADE Makers Online to make up for it. It’s really important to adapt to what’s going on and lots of fair organisers are doing an amazing job at this. Your support as customers is more important than ever. You are part of what keeps us making.

Keeping Busy

Last week I was so busy doing and making I forgot to write a diary entry. I positive reason I think. At the moment I’m balancing lots of different things: working on my online shop, making a new range of individual bottles, making notes of all the tiles that have been fired and making a commission.

I’ve been figuring out exactly what photos I want taken for my online shop (It is coming I promise). It takes time to define how many images of each pot, the angle of the pot in the photo, what colour and size of pots to use in group shots and other details like that. As I go along I change my mind or think of another, better way to photograph the work and then try to describe what I want to my photographer. Doing this over the phone or by messaging just doesn’t work. It’s so much easier to have a real life chat and discuss things through in person, showing rather than telling (socially distancing of course). Hopefully I will opening my online shop soon and will announce it on my Instagram, on my newsletter (which you can sign up for on my contact page) and on my website too.

For a few years I’ve been playing around with bottles and I have been using this time as an opportunity to play with more. They have been slowly getting better and stronger over the years but I have a much clearer idea of what I want now and a strong source of inspiration. The shape and surface decoration have changed quiet significantly. I have been playing with form, proportions and developing new patterns based on objects that can be easily overlooked, objects I have walked past for the last two years without really noticing them. Who knew an old metal bin could inspire you? I’ve been developing new colours too as I’ve talked about in my last diary entry. With the backbone of research and development done, now I get to make and play with the actual pots. Last week I made a few more bottles, tidied up the bases and have started decorating them. I’m really excited about them and looking forward to showing them off.

For trying out the new patterns, I made lots (!) of small tiles with different decorating techniques (paper resist, printing, inlay and sgraffito). So I don’t forget what I did on each of the tiles, or so I don’t have to remember depending on how you look at it, I have started a notebook noting all of the details. I say I will remember but in a year I will have forgotten what glaze or slip was used and how many layers of slip were applied.

Having showed the tiles to a friend, she asked me to make her a soap dish loosely based on them. It’s not something I’ve made before but I’m enjoying the challenge. With free reign over the design which is great, I am slab-building it as opposed to throwing. It’s a nice change as the thinking and making process is slightly different. It’s a bit like designing cutting sewing patterns. My mould is made and I will be making the actual soap dish in the next few days.

So that’s what I will be continuing on with over the next while. I am trying to make the most of my time on furlough, testing and making lots of pots.

Playing with Colour

For lockdown I gave myself the project of creating a new range of work, something different from my tableware range. I have been slowly making progress with it over the last few months; refining the details, playing with form, pattern, colour and surface decoration techniques. Developing a new body of work takes time as there is a lot of details to think about.

A few weeks ago, possibly longer as time has begun to blur, I made several coloured slip line blends* using commercial stains and natural oxides. They are (from top to bottom) red/orange, orange/yellow, yellow/green and green/blue. It’s very important when something new comes out of the kiln not to decide how you feel about it straight away, especially if you don’t overly like it. Usually this is because the glaze or slip has come out differently from how you hoped it would. As you can see from the photo it’s hard to tell which are the yellow and oranges slips. I was disappointed having expected them to be bright and colourful. They came out muddy with only a hint of their colour, even with a high percentage of stain. The 50-50 mix of the yellow with green works nicely and the orange with red too. I’m really happy with how the blue/green blend turned out. It is my favourite part of the colour wheel though.

With this in mind, I’ll be making up larger quantities of my chosen colours in the coming days and making more test tiles (I‘ve made a lot of tiles in the last few months) for testing these new colours with different coloured glazes over them. I have no idea how some of them will turn out, the colours they will be or the surface texture they will will have but that’s where the fun is. The possibilities are endless.

* Line blends are mixtures of two glazes or slips to specific and measurable proportions. It’s a quick and easy way for making and testing new colours and altering glazes.

Penny dropping moments

This week has again been filled and focused on making bird feeders. My first batch are nearly finished, four of them will be taken out of the kiln today after Wednesday’s glaze firing and the other four are waiting to be bisque fired.

While I’m in the swing of making bird feeders, I thought I’d make more in the white stoneware. The colour responses of the glazes on the two clays are subtly different and I also enjoy making them so why not. Yesterday I threw eight more. Fingers crossed there will be eight very nice feeders coming out of the kiln. (Counting pots that you make before they come out of the glaze firing is a bit like counting chickens before they hatch. There’s no guarantee they will all work.) Every time I make a new batch I try to make them better or more ergonomically. This time I added 100g to the weight of clay and it made such a difference. I was a bit mean beforehand with the amount of clay, only wanting to use as much as the final piece needed, just enough to get the height and curve right. This didn’t always work as not every feeder would behave; some would lose height as I collared in (shaping and narrowing in the top of the form), the fullness of the curve would be a bit higher or lower than desired and others would simply collapse as I tried to get the curve. They all looked great but I knew there was room for improvement. That extra clay gave me more scope to perfect the shape without having to worry about it collapsing or loosing height. The excess gets cut off as I am enclosing the top which is very satisfying to do. This was one of a few penny dropping moments I had when throwing yesterday.

This afternoon, depending on how the clay is, I will be trimming the bases. Cutting out the holes must be left to the next day. The clay needs to firm up more first as it can distort if it’s soft, like chocolate instead of cheddar cheese if you read my last diary entry. They are then left lightly covered until the next day to dry out more but not fully, when I will tidy up the edges of the holes and windows, stamp the base with my maker’s mark and leave them to dry out completely before they’re bisque fired.

Something else I have been doing recently is taking photos at the different stages of making the feeders. I’ll be putting this stop motion up on my Instagram account soon so keep an eye out.

Pot making plans

My plan for this week was to make bird feeders. I’ve sold a few of them in the last few days (Hooray!) and wanted to make more for the next planned firing.

I threw five on Sunday evening and planned on trimming and altering them the next day. The clay is drying out very quickly in the heat and it decides when you work with it. Certain processes are done are certain times.  (Trimming is done when the clay is soft leather hard, like cheddar cheese. The altering (cutting the large windows and drainage and hanging holes) are done when the clay is hard leather hard, a bit like chocolate.) When I went to do the trimming, I discovered I had wired through the bases of all five feeders. That was annoying. They were my best shaped ones yet (see photo); a lovely proportion and curve with throwing lines at the top to add softness.  What did I do? I got straight back on my horse to make some more. Unfortunately either I or the clay was not in the mood on Monday. Every one of those bird feeders collapsed on me.

Not every throwing day is a success. The clay needs to be in the right condition. The right proportion of recycled clay mixed through fresh clay straight from the bag. It has to be the right softness; too soft and it will collapse, too hard and it will be difficult to move the clay. It’s also bad for your wrists to throw with hard clay. The larger the object, the softer the clay should be. The potter needs to be in the right mood too; your mind needs to be centred, focused and calm. A lot of potters have the ‘why am I doing this?’ days. Luckily when you feel better you remember why; why even though it’s not always easy, you wouldn’t swap it for anything. You begin to accept and learn to recognise the days when you are not focused enough for the wheel.  I’m still learning. One thing that Julie taught me during my time with her was to ‘learn to forgive and forget’. It’s better to stop and do something else productively than create a large pile of wedging and recycling for yourself, making yourself feel worse. Don’t get hung up on what went wrong. Everyone has bad days.

So after a couple days break from the wheel, I’m going making more bird feeders tomorrow. I’m looking forward to the satisfaction of seeing a line of bird feeders drying and waiting for the next stage of making.

The story of the bird feeders

But really May 25, 2020

Today I thought I tell you the story about my birdfeeders. Last year I was selected for the Downton Cuckoo Fair, an annual May Day fair in south Wiltshire. Julie asked me was there a particular garden related item that I might like to make for it. I realised I wanted to make bird feeders. Who doesn’t love standing at the back door or window in the morning watching the garden birds hopping and flying around?

A strong yet simple form is what I wanted to make, a shape that could be thrown on the wheel. I drew sketches; different proportions, tall and narrow, low and wide or basically square forms; curved and straight walled; with various window shapes and sizes, triangular, circular, square and rectangular. Drawing is a great way to quickly see if what’s in your head might work. The bird feeder needed to be easy to clean, hung in some way and allow rain water to drain away. After making and firing a few test versions, I learnt my original plan to have a removable base was not going to work. It was too awkward and annoying.  Luckily one of the one sample pots I made had drainage holes in the base and that was perfect.

The bird feeder here is what I came up with; square in proportion, a curved triangular form, a base that slightly curves in to direct the rain water to the six drainage holes near the walls and three large circular windows for the birds to easily land and take off from. Since last year I am continually refining the details: the windows at first were cut by hand, now I use a hole-saw to give me a clean and tidy circle and the drainage holes have changed position slightly so they are hidden from view. I use old and broken phone charging cables or van wiring for hanging them. It adds a splash of colour and uses something that would otherwise be put in a hole in the ground. They are glazed with the different glazes in the pottery and paired with different coloured wire; shino with blue as seen here, copper red with gold, celadon with green or iron red with a yellow wire.

The birds in our garden love it. The robin, cheeky little thing that he can be, loves sitting and watching the garden between helping himself to food. The sparrows will wait their turn and even the blackbird has discovered it.

I love making them. It is still a bit of a challenge to get the curve of the wall just right without losing height but it is a challenge which I really enjoy.