Nic Collin’s woodfiring workshop part three – the pots

last week I made a quick dash down to devon to pick up my pots from the workshop firing in Nic’s “mongrel” kiln. everybody was pleased with their work, and I have to thank the rest of the group for all their hard work packing and firing all our pots. there were 150 pieces in there, and all survived. that is due to careful packing and careful stoking as much as anything. also Nic and Niklas for their help, supervsion and passing on of hard-won knowledge.

this is one of Nic’s jars, it’s glazed with his shino glaze and then has received a liberal dollup of runny natural ash.

and one of his tall bottles, fired on its side supported by shells, runny ash dribbles joining the shell scars.

I arrived quite late in the day so these photos are tinged with extra warmth from the low sunshine (I delivered pots to the David Simon Contemporary Gallery in Bath, where I’ll be having an exhibition in October, more of that in another post) but the salmons and rusts are quite special in these pots.

they were all covered with the Daniel Rhodes crackle slip, after a dribbly inky marking session with black iron oxide, but the type of clay body made the final colour more vibrant. these two for instance, on the left the clay body is an iron-rich mix of speckled stoneware, st thomas, and crank, on the right it is st thomas white. the white slip has prevented the one on the left looking like a very overdone christmas pudding, and the flamey rich rust colours are lovely. the shino glaze looks like iron oxide, not the sexy peachy shino on the right, but it is the same glaze.

Nic’s celadon is beautiful, never shiny but very rich.

I poured it over my pots

and these were packed on their sides, supported by scallop shells; the shell remnants work well with the poured celadon.

this time all of them had expressive lines impressed with clematis stems.

except for a couple with the crosses indented with a bamboo tool.

this one has more layers – no slip, but shino glaze poured down one side, then a lot of natural ash and it was under the rear stokehole and received about two bags of charcoal over the top of it. the triangle of flame colour is where one of Nick Marsh’s sculptures leant over it and protected it.

two with crosses, little and refined (well, sort of) and big and gnarly.

this was also a recipient of the charcoal stoking

when you look closely it has some lovely quiet texture and colour.

eleven pots altogether

this is what they looked like before they went in. some difference, eh!

in the two weeks since I left the giant sunflowers had come out.

it was such a pleasure to stay in the yurt and listen to the birds, see the stars, but autumn is on its way.

another treat was a nuthatch – I heard it tapping a nut up in one of the trees and then as we sat outside just before I left I played its song on my bird app – so it came over to one of the apple trees and examined us. found I was a fake bird of course.

miss T had a wonderful time playing steal the bone and hide it in the woodpile with Rhodey and Bryn.

since I got back I have been finding connections with my mark-making drawings – celadon green, flowing lines, flamey rusts and other wood-fired qualities.

there are photos of the fronts and backs of the pots,  with measurements, here