Studio Saturday

The first part of the week was eaten up by the need to get the windows painted, but on Thursday I spent the entire day at the studio.

First thing in the morning, Tom and Kyle put in the trunking and cable for the new kiln. Next week a proper electrician will make the connections and provide a certificate.

While they stepped on my desk (etc) I sat, away from the action, and got quite a lot of knitting done.

Later there was a bit of photography of people's work that was sitting around, thinking ahead to making an invitation for the Open Studio on Saturday 24 November. More info later, such as timing, but I can reveal that the address is 3 Wedmore Street, London N19 4RU, off Holloway.

Lindsay

Kate M

Jackie

Kate D

 As you can see, we're a diverse lot of potters/ceramicists.

Meanwhile my claim to being a potter/ceramicist took a small step forward as I looked carefully at what came out of the latest firing -

some 32 pots, 18 of which were ok structurally, though some of those did have broken bits upon close examination.

First each pot was photographed (for the record) and then I looked closely at it and thought hard about it and made notes, and gradually a list of "what to try next" formed in my studio notebook. (The little pot holds the shards. Those need recording too.)

More pots that are shards - or implosions - or "interesting" in that they can be treated in different ways, perhaps playfully, perhaps transformatively...

As the day wore on, I kept wondering "Will it arrive?" - and finally, after 4pm, it did the kiln was delivered, all the way from Stoke-on-Trent -

 Thanks to the helpful driver, who made sure it got safely into the studio -

 We unwrapped it ....

 ... and put "Aurora" in the kiln room, where she'll have to wait till next week to be connected up. And then the test firing. And then the real stuff can start!

More than a dozen dipped pots need tidying up before firing, and another dozen or so are stitched but not dipped. That's "the old stuff". 

Going forward, the list of what to try next (in the studio notebook) contains, as subtext, an implicit list of what not to bother with henceforth. For instance, I find the texture on the crochet pots too textured, generally (but they were easy to make, something to do while travelling) - instead I like the subtle textures of the bias pots, which unfortunately have a tendency to fall apart at the rim or crumble under less-than-gentle handling.

Also I'm (still; always...) thinking of ways to display - how about pots on "magic carpets"? -

 These are scraps with stitched marks - asemic writing, sometimes inspired by overheard one-sided conversations, interminable monologues on mobile phones in a train carriage...

Such conversations could erupt from the tranquility of the pot ....

On Friday, various rearrangements of the unbroken pots for the publicity shot for the Open Studio invitation 

 and yet another new arrival - some heating!

In fact we have two of these oil-filled radiators. I'm rather dreading the cold weather and it will be lovely to have somewhere to warm up the frozen fingers...