sheds and autumnal things

the shed is shaping up; now all the roof structure is done and tomorrow Peter and Alan will start covering it with a sandwich of plywood, thinsulate (foil and insulation layers) and roofing felt. then we will need about a thousand reclaimed Norfolk pantiles – old handmade ones. but at least the shed will be watertight by the end of the week. then I think they are going missing to work on another project for a week or so.

I managed one big pot so far this week. its taking a long time for the clay to lose moisture and I have a few other things to do. I am making an edited version of the anagama blog into a little book, and while I am at it I thought I would make a look book as they call it in the fashion world, of the Spring collection. I have worked out how to use Page Setup and the printer to make book pages which print up in the right order for book fold.

the pot continues what I was doing on the last batch to be fired, combing loose looping furrows into the porcelain. next I have some “industrial crank” – basically saggar clay – to try out. it fired pale toasty and rough textured when tested in the last firing.

while on the subject of furrows, I got some photos of the big stubble field being ploughed today. swirling snowstorms of gulls in attendance.

it’s fascinating watching the tractor tipped up in the furrow, smoothly turning the moist earth, which smells so sweet.

all the flowering plants are seeding now in the lanes. here’s rosebay willow herb; it was bright pink, now it’s a feathery mass of tufted white fuzz.

hogweed stems make strong patterning against the sky.

a chemical smell like bleach keeps attracting my attention; it’s the ivy flowers, which are out everywhere. I have a jar of ivy flower honey. it is last year’s and it is crystallising.