Workshop sorting

 Out to the workshop...mug of coffee, flapjack, radio....

Then bubble wrap to tape onto the wood kick wheel seat....

First job get the rust and other crud off the wheel head...which took quite a while! Then sort some tools.

Not a bad start!

Lunch break...and workshop sorting..

A clear corner..I will get some metal shelves for there, as they face onto the site at the back for the small wood burning stove...

Glazes and materials, kiln props and stacks of clay...only those on the left are soft enough to use...but that is five rather flat 12.5 kg bags, plenty for now.

The problem....just look around....

Plus a stack of HTI kiln bricks.....and several tool boxes of assorted tools collected since 1973.....

When the kiln is up and running, kiln shelves and props and spare bricks should be in the kiln shed....

Small steps....

A bit of a mess

 And that's an understatement!!

I need another pair of hands to help me move a deep bed and a polytunnel frame...

That I can't manage on my own..and I am not dismantling them!

Then the workshop

You should see how much of Pirate's stuff I have shifted out ..shall we say his sheds are full to the doors....and Stuff has gone to the cowp ....

The kiln shed is now clear of non kiln things, I will be discussing strategy with another potter from up the coast....

So much to do ..but at least everything is inching in the right direction.

Just ticking along

 Just doing the ordinary things...trying to get a short walk in for Pirate morning and afternoon. Working on his cardio vascular fitness and rebuilding muscle. Use it or lose it comes home at times like this, for both of us.

The weather isn't much help..dreich...damp, cold, and Easterly with a windchill bringing the feel down to freezing.  Which means walks are even shorter!  So having stairs is coming in handy. Ad break on the TV? Up and down stairs once or twice...keeps the circulation going, keeps him feeling warmer! 

One day at a time....and if it ends up being two steps forward and one back....that ends up as one step forward!

Meanwhile I am trying to do jobs for me...starting to clear out the kiln shed, sorting things to go to the cowp, hopefully listing more things on fleabay...in between house sorting...making feel less cluttered as well as decluttering... and increased washing. 

Getting to the town on the bus is a relief..a break from home and from driving!  A good chance to get the car in for a bit more work, getting jobs done bit by bit instead of a huge amount before it's annual MoT test.

We have just watched the final of the Pottery Throwdown Programme.

A worthy winner, but close. Good to see, and inspiration for me as well.

Jocelyn and kiln progress

 

Here we go again....wash, rinse and repeat....washing machine weather without the drying cycle....

Now there are flood warnings (luckily not us at a little over 400 foot above sea level) as well as strong winds, and very restricted rail services.

It isn't as strong as the last storm, but it is still stay at home weather.

Pirate has retreated to bed again..the weather doesn't help how he is feeling one little bit. I just hope that they can offer treatment to alleviate how he feels...it is frustrating that he insisted on waiting until my 70th birthday, end of last June, and his daughter's 50th last October...and then Christmas....

But it is as it is now. We should know exactly where he is after the two scans, by the end of the first week of February.

I have contacted a company to get a new quote on sorting the flue on my kiln...I was waiting for the Oily One, son#1, but after making me a flue section a year ago he hasn't been able to do any more.

The last time I contacted the company was in 2017, but I can't find the emails anywhere...and life has certainly got in the way of kiln progress!!

I couldn't afford their quote then, but hopefully between fleabay sales and savings I may be able to now...

Today's job is to find the photos I need...nothing is going to get done outside in this weather!!

A find

 I found this wee mug in the local op shop...made by Krystyna Young, née Trzebski (probably should be Trzebska...but not every writer on ceramics would realise that..and I don't know how long she or her family had been in Britain)

She started working in the Brading Pottery on the Isle of Wight in the 1970s, then moved to Haseley Manor, also on the island. They restored the house and she ran the pottery. She died in 2000.

A beautiful piece and I have given it to my brother as a thankyou for looking after us so well this week.

Here in Somerset the weather is giving us light rain showers, but from the Isle of Wight up through the English Midlands and on to Scotland there is a band of heavy rain showers and thunder and lightning. We decided that heading for home tomorrow was the wisest thing to do!

Rest and recovery continues... slowly.

Easy day

 Sunday's racing was good...they had four day's racing and no crashes, as well!

El Presidente and our team mates.

Pirate's sponsor on the left..he sponsors the team and finds a little time to ride as well.

And Number one son (AKA The Oily One as he fixes cars as a hobby/sideline!) came to see us.

A friend's granddaughter taking photos of mum on the podium!

Today after some drive weeding (brother is not an avid gardener!) I went with him to Barrington Pottery..he had some plates from them a while back, now he is ordering some Breton style Cider Cups..like teacups but mug size....

And the café/ reception building for Barrington House was getting a new thatch.

There are several workshops and a second hand bookshop in old outbuildings

Pottery history..for Barbara

 I first met clay when we moved to Eastleigh. I was eight, and there was a dustbin full of dubious looking and smalling grey clay for us to use and construct things.

The main problem was that everything had to go back in the bin at the end of the lesson..that did not seem right!!

No more clay...but always plenty of drawing, and from age 12, photography, until in Grammar school at 14 in art lessons. We had two teachers who had been to the Slade school of Art. No experience of anything 3 D. A little stand up kick wheel, slip and a couple of glazes for decoration and one kiln..must have been between 4 to 6 cubic foot capacity.  

I got top marks for Art GCE 'O' level, then went on with pottery being the main subject for 'A' level.  I made a small cruet set...white glazed with added manganese around the rim.

Unfortunately one teacher managed to drop the small spoon I had carved..twice! Anyhow I ended up with a second 'O' level in that...and an 'A' grade in Geology A level....quite apt, as ceramics is applied geology!!

Without the required 'A' level grades I couldn't go on to Aberystwyth university..but a good thing as now I realise that that was Art History!! Why no-one said about applying for Art Colleges I don't know..perhaps they thought that was beneath a grammar school to consider.

During this time on my spare time wanders by bike I visited the mill with a pottery near Salisbury I think, and saw the work of Oldrich Asenbryl

I moved to Cardiff..a short lived marriage which didn't work..and he walked out...but one of his comments was, You should go to Art College....and in 73 I did the foundation course at Cardiff college of Art...which, at Howard Gardens, was on the fifth floor!!!! With fantastic light.

I applied for a 2 year course at Derby and was accepted...but also was accepted on Cardiff's 3 year ceramics course.  

On the day of my interview I was queuing for the canteen, and heard a jokey comment from behind me...and turned to see who it was...and looked up...and met a friend for life...whose life sadly ended a few years ago. Peter Goodridge.

I accepted Cardiff's offer. There we were, eighteen of us at the start!  It was a testing time for both students and staff as it was the transition time from diploma to degree courses for Art...and at the end of two years I had had enough..having to justify my work to four tutors constantly...I had had enough!! By that time there were only nine of us left..

I went to work for David Frith at Brookhouse Pottery near Denbigh in North Wales, until I married again in September 1977.

Much travelling ensued again following his employment. But eventually we bought a house in Nantlle in 1980, and workshop then family ensued.

Four offspring later we moved to a small smallholding in Garn Dolbenmaen near Porthmadog.  No workshop, but with my children we established a large fruit and vege garden and planted the beginnings of an orchard. 

I worked for two seasons in the Golden Dragon bookshop in Porthmeirion village, before joining Snowdon Mill pottery in Porthmadog as a designer/maker.

Everything went pearshaped in 1997 and I was on my own as a single parent...by 1998 I got a job in a pottery gifts factory in Barry in South Wales, and we were off moving again!!

It wasn't a good place to work, so I was fortunate to get a part time.bookshop job again, in the National History Museum at St Ffagan outside of Cardiff.

This gave me a chance to join an arts cooperative for a while and develop my work.

I bought a house in Cardiff, and after renovation I could afford a house part way up the Ebbw Valley, that had a garage...which after rebuilding became a workshop!!

The work in St Ffagan moved sideways...and I started working for the potter in the museum, making small sheep!! He sold me a kiln...which I hope to get working again soon. That worked well until I moved north to Scotland.

I was fortunate to meet up with Peter Goodridge again and help with saltglaze firings at his workshop, with other potters..his wife, Melanie Brown, Rosemary Cochrane and others.   It was such a good time, also being a member of the Black Mountains cooperative and doing a turn in the gallery and café outside Abergavenny once a month and selling my work well there, and in markets at Hay on Wye, Brecon, Builth Wells and Usk.

Then came the pirate...and the move to Scotland!!

Now I need to get back working, as we have built a good workshop extension...

A break away in Aotearoa NZ is just what we need to boost health and inspiration..there will be no excuse after that!!

Chepstow again

 Looking towards England on the other bank of the Wye.

And walking along the waterfront.

We met Pirate's eldest daughter for coffee and a little walk around the town....not too long as it was dreich and not condusive to much activity.

I did see Ned Hayward, the local potter, unloading a vanload of clay and said hello...good to know that he is still going!