A sense of place.

Today I went to visit the Sainbury Centre for Visual Arts at the University of East Anglia in Norwich. I particularly went to visit the exhibition by Justin Partyka of his photos of East Anglians.

The exhibition is a collection of photographs of agrarian East Anglia, in particular the small local farms that still exist in this flat sky-bound part of the country. It seems slightly rediculous that I drove 40 miles to see photos of scenes that I see from my windows and that I live in and see every day. But at the same time, it was quite sad that this exhibition shows a way of life that is passing. I say sad, because really, with the way the world is at the moment, we really should be encouraging this kind of small-scale locally orientated farming. Not that I'm anti-globalist - I like my spices and the odd banana here and there - we have a history going back thousands of years, of trading with lands across the sea, but today it is so much less sustainable.

Some of the scenes are from around this area - in fact one picture, of a farmer holding a bunch of carrots with a small ginger kitten at his feet, could have been from my garden - I currently have three ginger kittens. Justin is making a film along these lines, featuring a local farmer. See if you can understand a word he says:



I can't wait to see the full thing. He mentions Methwold, which is just up the road from here.

It's got me thinking about things. Over the past few years, I've considered moving away - particularly down to the west country somewhere. I have many friends there, but my reasons for wanting to be there, at the time, were the wrong ones - things I thought were happening which clearly weren't, it seems. But I've been in East Anglia for thirteen years now, and I like this part of the world almost as much as.

Much was made of the role of carrots and sugar beet to these small scale farmers. I guess that's one of the reasons I put up with 3000-4000 lorries a day trundling past my house with great disturbance. It is part of this land. Likewise, the produce company near me was described to me as a carrot factory.

I'd quite like to get some of the landscape and surroundings in to my pots. I realise now that the colour of my shino - that flat bright gold colour - is the colour of the reeds in the winter sun, which can be seen at, say, Tichwell, or Wicken Fen. The colours and effects of the skies seem to offer something but i don't know what. (As soon as I start this line of thinking, I always inevitably end up at earthenware and slipware pots, but that's another story.)

The exhibition is on until December 13th - well worth a visit if you can get there.

Incidentally, the shop had a nice collection of pots by Mark Titchener. I have one of his plates that gets used everyday - but I didn't buy anything this time.

Right, enough of my drivel...

I can haz no cobwebs anymore.

I know this is of zero interest to most of you, but I now have ceilings upstairs again. Yay!

Brian's been and gone - arrived last monday and has worked twelve hour days to get it finished in time. Heaven knows what time he'll get home tonight.



Of course, lots of work to be done to get them decorated, floor boards finished, etc etc.



We didn't fire the kiln unfortunately, but I'll have to fire again soon.

Ho hum.

Anglian Potters in Jesus Lane, Winter Exhibition 2009

Well, i drove in to Cambridge to view the exhibition this morning. A two hour round trip, for a twenty minute stop. It was busy! It's quite a nice set up - the church is worth going in to for a start, and there are many nice pots for sale. The quality of the pots is pretty high. There is only one confirmed other wood-firer, with a second possible (some soda glazed pots that I wasn't sure if they were wood fired or not.)

My set of pots looked ok and I appeared to have sold one, possibly two more pots (my number one pot wasn't on display and one of the crusty tankards wasn't out, but that might have been because they wanted to show different things - I don't know.) I have to say that, looking at my pots, I wondered why people would buy them. Apart from the tankards, they're useless pots really, quite decorative I suppose. I'm not sure about my bottle forms either - I have developed them from a pot I liked, but now I'm not so sure. In fact, the forms in general need some work, I think.

Anyway, if you get a chance to go along, it's at All Saints Church on Jesus Lane, Cambridge, UK, from today, 14th November, until 13th December. There's plenty of diversity so should suit most people, and it's a really friendly group of people - well worth it.

Not been doing much.

Well, the last two days I have been in Cambridge helping to set up the exhibition at All Saint's Church on Jesus Lane, Cambridge. It's a nice venue - gothic revival with arts and crafts interior - now with lots of stark white stands ready for pots. And there are lots of pots too. The private view is Saturday, and then the exhibition continues until mid-December sometime.

And... I've sold a pot already, to Tony, one of the guys setting up (and who has done a stirling job on the electrics.) It was one of the small straight-sided bottles that sat in the flu exit on its side, with two wad marks. Let's hope it's a sign of things to come. I shall pop over on Saturday to have a look and take some photos.

Tomorrow I have to prepare the upstairs of my house for the impending ceilings - which means clearing the room I'm sleeping in at the moment and remove its ceiling, push-fit some insulation in it, and prepare somewhere to sleep for me. I also have to make some more pots as Brian has suggested we might get time to fire the kiln too, which would be good. Unfortunately, the sound-proof insulation I bought has been stored outside under a tarpaulin which I thought would be water proof. it isn't, and so it is now soaking wet. I don't think we'll be able to use it. Oh well... that was a monumental waste of money. I'm good at things like that.

Ho hum - off to bed.

Choices

Ok, so it's crunch time. I have picked out 20 pots for the exhibition. I need to pack, price and label them tonight, but I've lost the little stickers so I'll have to buy some more in the morning, before travelling over to Cambridge.

Anyway, I have a dillema. I have to pick out five pots to go on initial display in the exhibition - not all the pots go out at any one time. But I don't know what to pick. I haven't really even narrowed it down to two choices, but here are two that I am thinking might be suitable, and I need some help in making the decision.

First choice is five shino pots, but they are different styles and heights. The two that perhaps stand out less here are the two tankards. They are heavily ashed and, to my mind, just lovely. If I wasn't desperate for the money, I'd probably keep one if not both of them. But I'm not entirely sure they're going to appeal to everyone. The others are a jar with flat rim, a jar with pinched lugs and a bottle.



The second choice gets rid of the bottle and the jar with the lugs, and replaces them with the two oval/flat vases with the hyplas slip. They are quite dramatic, but quite different from the other pots. So, they perhaps contrast with the shino pots to show a range of pots. The first choice represents a body of work, perhaps - they act as a whole. This choice is five pots all about the same size.



So, choice 1 or choice 2? Or some other mix?

Now... prices. What do you think. Bearing in mind the this firing cost me a lot in wood, and that there's a commission charge of 30%. I was thinking, 25 pounds for the tankards, 35 for the two jars, 25 for the two flat slipped vases and 40 for the bottle. Too much? Or too little? I guess the jar is about 6-7 inches tall, the jar with the lugs about six inches, the two flat vases about 5 inches, the bottle about 8 inches.

I'm hopeless at this. I want to sell the pots - I don't want to bring them home - but I don't want to undersell them either. Nor do I want to appear greedy (even though I almost certainly am.)

Thoughts?

Pots from firing six.

Ok, some pots from firing six. Or, phase three, firing one, as it should be known. It wasn't as bad as I first thought it was going to be - torch light isn't a good indicator of success. That being said, it is quite pale, with soft oranges and pinks, with pale ash turning blue or green in places. I think I'll have enough pots for the exhibition, although whether I can price them to cover the cost of the firing (I reckon the wood alone cost me about 200 pounds) I don't know.

Of course, the order of the photos is the opposite to how I'd like them. That first picture is of a cobalt glaze - the Leach 4-3-2-1 glaze with 0.2% cobalt - which is horrid but I thought I'd include it for completeness. The shino glazes all came out quite similar. The pure petalite glaze has shimmered a bit, so I think I'll ditch that in future.

So where to go next. More technical stuff to sort out with the kiln I think. Nic suggested using a baffle in front of the flu to keep heat in. I have done that in the past two firings at it has worked, but I removed it this time. I think that needs re-instating. The pack was also too loose, and i think that'll have to be worked on. I need more kiln shelves though.

Lastly, the kiln has taken two days to cool which is too quick. I'd like to find a way of keeping the heat in a bit longer, especially in the first few hours after the firing. In two hours, the kiln lost 400 degrees or more. So the lid arrangement needs some readjusting, and the use of fibre needs some more care.

Finally, I think some or many of these pots are a bit, well, plain and dull. Not all, but some. I think a bit more decoration needs to be worked on - either the hakame thing again (I am reassessing some of my previous pots and deciding that I quite like some of them.)

Job done

although what's coming out on Monday or Tuesday, I don't know. It's been an odd one. Started at 6am yesterday, fired until midday today. That's 30 hours, which is ok. I had hoped to fire for longer - till about 8pm - but I hadn't prepared enough wood - I've used loads of hardwood and a fair bit of pine too - I hate to think how much this firing has cost me.

Tony did a stirling job, coming on Wednesday to help the packing and building the rest of the kiln. This is really a new kiln as the flu and chimney are brand new. It's taller and wider for a start, and I think it worked marginally better. The new pyro is now in the side but measured the flame due to a stupid pack, really - very very open at the front, mildly open at the back with a big side-stoke gap in between. The front cones, up to 13, went early on last night, but I only managed to get cone 10 down at the back, despite the pyro reading 1360! It was quite hot in there, but I think that's wrong.

Matt came and did a night shift, which was really helpful. Without the two helpers I think I would have given up on Wednesday. Tony also did some tidying up and put my pots in order



with shelves. Much neater.

Taking it easy for the rest of the day - shopping and beer I think.