We were at the Shaw Centre at 8.40am to go on a tour of the IXL Brickworks. Terrible rainy, windy weather. But seeing the manufacture of bricks was really interesting for a potter. The business has been there since the 1800s, first using clay from the local hillside but now trucked in from East End and Redcliffe. We saw enormous extruders, tunnel kilns, brick presses…

Yesterday was taken up with firing the salt kiln again. We lit it at 7.30am. Claude took Leigh and me to Ackland Grainger to buy proper vapour masks. I was able to buy North ones that fit my mask. I can still use the regular filters when I'm mixing glaze. In the afternoon the media came to meet us and interview some for a local…

10am we were taken on a guided tour of the Medalta National Historic District. Ron Mason, the education coordinator, was a very knowledgeable and animated guide. In the photo he's explaining slip casting. Chelsea Scott is cleaning up jiggered bowls. Here we are pretending to be Medalta Pottery workers. The interpretive displays are just great. They give a good feeling for the pottery of the…

Claude has booked the salt kiln for Wednesday so I wadded my few pots and the draw-rings for that. I'll refire one or two from the first firing. We plan to do slightly less reduction. Les Manning's Aesthetic contribution. My new screen saver is this pile of sewer pipes behind the Medalta complex. Inspired by Rosemary Cochrane's 'Salt-Glaze Ceramics',  I threw some tankards and vases…

A really lovely hot day - and I didn't get outside to enjoy it! Finished applying handles to mugs. I threw and assembled a fairly large bird bowl and two silly little birds. They'll be useful to test contrasting slips in salt. Potter Nicole Reidmueller paid us a visit with her children Willow and Silas. Jim Etzkorn had a gallery opening for his work at…