Recently, we’ve had an annoying spell of things breaking. Something new happened to add to it, which was flat pieces (for pictures) breaking in their first (bisque) firing – that was a shock indeed! Looking into it I discover the same old story – I’ve just been lucky so far..

What I should have been doing is putting sand or batt wash (a powder usually mixed with water to cover the kiln shelves) on the shelf and placing the picture on it, so that during the heating and cooling processes in the kiln, it has room to move and not be under pressure. Lesson learned.

One of the pieces was actually three large flat pieces forming one artwork, a triptych, that will form a backdrop behind someone’s aga style cooker. I would say I could have cried, but actually I did just cry. I dwelled on how to respond to K, the person who commissioned it, and eventually emailed her with the sad photos and the offer to remake (a long wait), refund her or start again but deliberately make it in six pieces (also a long wait). You’ll not be surprised to hear that I cried again when she phoned in tears saying how much she loved the broken pieces and wanted them glazed! The reason she chose us, she says, was because of Chris’s poetry, which reflects often on what is beautiful and what is broken within each one of us..

The fourth piece to break that day is pictured below – less of an emotional deal, although still puzzling! However, the ancient Japanese method of restoring what is broken with gold, kintsugi, works beautifully with the subtle and fragile looking trees and the poetry with it. What do you think?

Sometimes, there are such big things happening in life – family illness, bereavement, financial juggling, changing covid regulations, trials and tribulations and ups and downs.. however you want to phrase it all – but the other day it was creating these necklaces that nearly finished me (Michaela) and had me reaching for the job page in the local paper..

I made necklaces in the past but wasn’t really happy with the finish so I tried again and this time created something more ‘seatree’ and more finished. On advice, I used epoxy for gluing the new findings to the ceramic pendants, which took some time – only to come in the next day and find how easy it was to pop them off. Sigh. Out comes the super glue which fixes anything to anything, apparently – it says so on the packaging but also it stuck my fingers to the scissors, the scissors to the table, my fingers to the table, my fingers to each other, the paintbrush to the pendant.. Eventually I had ti all lined up and sat for 2.5 (im)patient minutes while holding the pendant and finding together at a weird angle.. And dry. Sigh of relief. Then the next morning, off they all popped again. I could have cried. How hard can it be!

Wish us luck – as tomorrow we try a newly recommended glue by a jewellery expert. Otherwise, I might be applying for that job in the local post office…

PS The photograph I can’t take credit for as that was our daughter took it, trying to give me some hope! Doesn’t it look lovely?

Over the past few days, we have finally set up the display in our ‘shop shed’. This video hopefully gives some indication of where we are up to.

We can’t say thankyou enough to those wonderful people who made this possible by crowdfunding us. It is incredible to think that others will invest in us, just when we needed it most in the middle of a pandemic. We will be in touch with you all…

Where would we be too without friends? Our friend Nigel helped Chris with whole process. He is a hero!

In case you missed it, here is a bit of a montage of the building process;

This year, we decided to focus our attention on a limited number of Christmas decorations instead of spreading ourselves too thinly. Last year Karen and I had a competition to see who glazed the most decorations. Karen won by glazing lots of workshops decs and I made her a special one-off as a reward! But this year, there’s only sixteen being made by me. I made twenty, used two for trials and dropped two! So, sixteen it is…

I bought some beautiful slate grey ribbon – not my usual starting point! I tried two green glazes, seen in the photo. I love the silver flakes, provided to me by Raine Clarke artist – if you don’t know her work, you can check it out here at Underwing Studio. Anyway, having done two trials I decided not to go with green but to follow my first instinct and go blue. I’m hoping with the silver they will look beautiful. It’s a small thing, but making something that feels right, is totally ‘seatree’ is really important – so, blues it is and a special word on each one, pulled out of some of Chris’s poetry.

We hope you like them. 

Watch social media for photos of the finished pieces.

We’ve just watched a beautiful talk by Rob Bell called ‘Drops like stars’. It was about the way that destructive forces, like bereavement, betrayal, debt, changes things for us in a positive way – the way that they define the future and the choices we make. He wove so many stories through the talk, including from a ceramic artist. Of course, those words really grabbed my attention. The way that every piece of clay, every error, every success, every disaster, is precious because it either works and something beautiful emerges, or we learn from it. 

In the studio, not one piece of clay is wasted. Everything that breaks or goes dry or stops cooperating in some way, gets recycled and used again another day. Some pieces that go ‘wrong’ get used for glaze trials. Some get sold as someone else loves them. Some get smashed in a very therapeutic clear out. 
Here’s a recent sculpture in the making. The poem says ‘I’ll not be drowning today’. She’s the third in line of recent makes – the first worked then cracked while drying, the second just didn’t work, and she is the third – we’ll see how it goes. I so enjoyed making her. It just came together how I imagined it. I have so very much to learn but this is one way of learning – I’ve been frustrated at times but am determined to keep moving forward. She is now fired (phew) and waiting to be glazed and fired again next week.. Watch this space!

I’ve been really lucky to receive an award from Craft Scotland for a sculpture course. It was the chance to apply for something that was about developing my art, not about the business skills. I feel so blessed to have an investment into me as an artist. The course will hopefully take place early October, virus permitting! I’ll be back to blog about what I’ve learned!