Going to Pot!

Greetings everyone.

Earlier in the year, when I did a free book-making workshop as part of a local Arts Festival, I met a potter called Penny (of Penny Spooner Ceramics). I inquired if she did any workshops and not only was the answer yes but she had, fortunately for me, just had a cancellation for a Saturday in September. I quickly signed up and this weekend I took a trip to a gorgeous little studio in a nearby village to play with clay.

Penny's pots (I do like a bit of alliteration!) are beautiful and her cups have recently appeared in this year's Great British Bake Off. I took a few photos of her studio:  

I just love the duck egg blues and pastel pinks. There were 4 of us doing the workshop - a married couple and another lady. The woman from the couple had previously done one of Penny's workshops, the man had done pottery O' level, the other lady had her own potter's wheel ......... and then there was me! 

The day was divided into 2 halves. In the morning I had a go at hand-building a pot, which basically involved rolling out the clay, wrapping it round a cardboard template of a chosen size, adding a base and decorating it. I chose to make a medium vase:

I also made one other item, which I can't show just yet as it's intended for L's birthday in November (unless it's just too awful when fired!). There is a leafy pattern on the vase (not that visible on the photo) which you get by rubbing a piece of embossed wallpaper over the clay. The letters were made using a set of alphabet stamps and cutting them out before sticking them on with slip. I added a little bit of duck egg blue to the lettering and ornamental buttons on the overlap, which again you can't see here. Penny had just put the kiln on that morning and as it usually takes about a month to refill, I should be able to collect my 'efforts' sometime in October.

After lunch I had a go on the wheel. Think 'The Generation Game' (yes, I am showing my age!)  and you'll get the idea. It was brilliant fun but, as I was next to the lady with her own wheel, I did feel rather inadequate. I made 2 small bowls which, given that the clay shrinks in the kiln, will probably end up the size of egg cups! Foolishly, I forgot to take photos of these but I'll post some when they're fired.

Other happies this week include:

Continuing to work on L's Coastal Ripple blankie. It has been a bit too hot to work on it over the Summer months, but now that it's a bit cooler I'm glad to get going again. I think I've got another 7 rows or so before doing the border.

Hand quilting my first quilt. This is taking rather a while and I am rather regretting not buying a quilting foot for Genevieve. I'll, hopefully, get there eventually and then I just need to bind the edges.

Anyway, that's all for now; I'm just off for a much needed haircut. Enjoy the lovely sunny weather we seem to be having at the moment. Toodle Pip. x