greyness, blossoms and buds

one weekend of sunshine and you start to get optimistic about spring – then it’s grey for seven days running.

the daffodils are out, the primroses line the lanes, the blackthorn is white in all the hedges, but it’s really been feeling quite wintery.

the blackthorn in my garden has been quite slow, one bush is just out. the japonica has been in flower all week.

the beauty of bath apple tree has buds swelling into pale green pompoms and studding its branches. this needs drawing, for next spring’s knit collection, but it’s been too cold to stand out there for long. soon I will have to start growing vegetables in the new beds.

the wild daffodils are nicely out in the wildflower garden, and cowslips are beginning to stand up and be counted. today I sowed woodland wildflower seeds under the trees, and reseeded grass and wildflowers, old meadow mixture, where the grass has been dug up. under the apple trees I planted four plum-coloured baby hellebores.

I have been making big pots with the black clay, undiluted this time. there is a risk of dunting (cracking after firing) but I am fairly confident of success. if I glaze inside and outside, and stand them in sand, I shouldn’t have a problem.

these two are enormous, the one on the left will have to be bisque fired on it’s side, and I will go a little higher than usual to try to get them to shrink a bit.

this is a new shape. the main body is made of two tapered pieces, in order to get the tapered shape, larger at the top.

the next bisque firing will be just a few large pots.

twirling it round with the spike to make the horizontal lines is enjoyable, the final touch.

I am making one of these a day, which allows the clay to mature enough to work with. I don’t need to heat the workshop for this, and I can get on with other tasks, gardening, and drawing.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.