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…

On Saturday I spent quite a while noting what slips did what on all my work. There are some super colours - and there are some that have a bit too much reduction. The one pot made of H570 looks great with Blair's Red slip - NS, grolleg & Helmer. I won't use H550 any more. I hope I don't regret that.   Handles on…

Here are some more photos of the salted pots. There was a party in the studio on Friday evening.

At 10am on Friday there was a scheduled tour of the old Hycroft Pottery factory which operated in competition with Medalta from the thirties until the sixties. It is full of amazing machinery and a vast circular kiln all slowly rotting away. For some years the building was used as the home of the Ceramic Residency programme as it started out. We are SO lucky…