things I have been making

summer should be the best time for making pots, but when the weather is good the three huge pieces of double glazing in the pot shed roof make it a little hot. however I can’t complain about that much this summer.

the lilies are just starting to open their buds; I have been vigilant against the lily beetles and there are four pots of healthy plants.

the last batch of pots which should fill the kiln for a second biscuit firing; stage one – I have plastered semi-liquid china clay on the surfaces which blends in an interesting way with the mess made by brown slip when joining, with a few finger prints added. my glazes really like this mix.

ready for the spout after a good slapping ….

four little bottles with shoulders. I had already been looking at Cycladic sculpture, which is where this spade silhouette shape came from, but a friend gave me a book on it, with some great images. the marble bowls and containers have wonderful texture, rough powdery surfaces, and craggy edges …

so I have gone back to making some bowls – these are cut out of the rolled out clay as discs, then put over a mould and paddled into a rough bowl shape, then pinched and generally squished upwards and inwards as much as the clay will stand (this is recycled for about the third time, so it doesn’t stand up to a lot).

another one with porcelain slip daubed over it. you can just see a vase with manganese oxide and sgraffito marks lurking in the corner.

then this bigger shallow bowl with a lot of china clay powder sprinkled onto wet porcelain slip

more finished pieces waiting to go into the kiln

already biscuit fired; painted with black iron oxide and scored;

this one painted with manganese – I have no idea what these oxides are going to do under my glazes – I just hope they don’t end up melting all over the kiln shelves.

I made a whole batch of these in a mix of the black clay and a dark stoneware to replace the big black bottle which cracked in the last firing. hopefully the mixture will give these a better chance.

I want to dedicate this post to my old friend Max Bell (not his real name) who sometimes commented here and was always encouraging. I was very sad to hear  he died this weekend, after a long battle with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. far too young and with too much to do to go out like that.

7 Comments

  1. Great stuff.
    I adore your blog and your work. I have caught up on past posts over the past few months. I am a recreational knitter and I used to be a fashion designer so your lifestyle sucked me in right away!
    The last piece is particularly exciting to me!
    So sorry to hear of a fellow reader’s passing.
    May he rest comfortably.
    Keep blogging. It’s very enriching.

    Reply

  3. Great to see your latest creations…always enjoy seeing how you go about your work.So sorry to hear of your sad loss……..too many are taken too soon.

    Reply

  4. Hi,
    Just found your website via typing ‘lilly beetle’.
    Sadly, I’ve recently purchased an infested fritilleria plant and am now very worried that my oriental lilly bulbs (which are just coming up)will become infested too! If you’ve got any past experience with lilly beetles and bug-busting tips I’d be grateful. BTW you are a very good and natural potter – I always found pottery to be such a gentle and theraputic past-time.
    Anyway, thanks for creating such a nice site – I’ll be back!

    Reply

    1. hi thanks, nice to see you here – well, I just examine the lilies with great care regularly and squash any I find, plus the larvae which are easy to find as they surround themselves with their own excreta ….

      Reply

  5. Awwh! Wish I’d checked back with you first! This morning my Pater totally convinced me to get rid of the entire plant! He then instructed me (he’s 82yrs, a bit bossy and it is his garden!) to spray the remaining soil with his home-made concoction of bleach and washing-up liquid “in order to kill any beetles left behind”. Thing is, I only ever found two adults and one green wriggly crawling worm thing and some quite badly chewed-up leaves but no eggs (i heard about the poo thing but didn’t see any). Although I squished the worm, being a devout coward the two adults were put in an air-tight container and out of sight. Anyway, where once stood a gathering of beautiful, albeit infected purple nodding heads my lovely frits are now no more…

    PS thanks for your warm welcome – it really does make all the difference and guarantees another fellow traveler!

    Reply

  6. I find that if you have lilies, you have to be checking them all summer, or those darned beetles will be sneaking up on them. I found six on mine in May and murdered them, but maybe the bad weather isn’t helping them, as I haven’t found any since! good luck with yours.

    Reply

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