Most Friday afternoon see me and my Mum in the pottery welcoming in the primary school age youngsters that come along for Kids and Clay.

Some weeks we have a plan, to introduce some new skills and new ideas. Some weeks the children themselves have a cunning plan. And some weeks the two come together.

Recently I thought it would be a good idea to teach them how to make square box shapes and the idea grew to become a village… The children drew a building they wanted to make and we set to to construct each one. Check out our facebook page for what became of their wonderful ideas. The young boy pictured is glazing his house, made on his first session with us. Not bad, eh?

Of course, we didn’t stop there – our village has a river, a road, bridges, a pavement, some flower tubs, a lamp post, some chickens, some people, street benches and a street sign.

The village name is Claytopia.

(Of course.)

I just love children’s imaginations. Their freedom teaches me to be more free. Why should a bridge be brown when it could be a rainbow?

Now we run our own business, I am trying to get better at giving feedback to people that I buy from as I now realise what a difference it makes to small businesses and individual makers.

It’s so lovely (and a relief) to get good feedback on our Etsy page. Sometimes we get emails – I always open them with trepidation – did it break in the post, do they not like it… and thankfully (mostly) I worried unnecessarily and the email is to say thank you.

My favourite feedback though comes in the form of a card – imagine taking the time to make or buy a card, write in it, head to the post office. So lovely. Here’s a little selection of cards we’ve received, including a brilliant one designed and posted to us from a family who were visiting on holiday.

The plan was for the three of them to make something unique for themselves. While chatting at the beginning – do you like making things, have you done pottery before, is there anything in particular you would like to make – the Dad mentioned that when he was at primary school he made a mole. Lucky him, I said, having never had the opportunity to do pottery until I was in my forties. However, the story took a turn for the worse as his father had thrown the mole out of the window to scare a cat out of the garden and the mole smashed.  So we hatched a plan to remake the mole. Sometimes I have to think on my feet!

Here you can see the mole which features on the thank you card along with their message – such a lovely thing!

This wee cup is one I made as a sampler for an upcoming workshop for Mothers Day. (There are still places available by the way. Give us a shout for more information or check out the workshops page on this website.)

However, my point of showing you the picture is that this is what happens when we work together. I’ll explain.

I made the cup and saucer and it was out of the kiln on the table with a whole kiln full of glazing; shop and individual orders; workshop pots; pots made by other potters who hire my kiln. It was going to be a busy day. Our grown-up daughter is living at home with us and in exchange for board and lodgings does a day’s work for us a week. (We like exchanges; you’ll have worked that out!) Mostly, Em does admin for us – gallery spreadsheets, updating Etsy, photographing stock – but sometimes I call her in to the pottery. We had done quite a bit of glazing already and then reached the cup and saucer. I was doing some detailed glazing on some poetry plaques so I gave Emily free reign (or is it free rein?) and she chose this spring yellow tinged with green around the edges.

It’s so different from what I would have chosen. But it’s lovely and cheerful and bright – just the thing for a Mothers Day gift and for an eye-catching photograph.

We live and work together as a family and there are many joys to that, the simple days, in the pottery, woodshed, garden, taking a picnic lunch where and when we choose, coorying up by the fire when it’s an admin day. There are also challenges though. Different views and ideas and ways of doing things. The challenge is to learn from one another and letting go of our way of doing things. Keep cheering us on.

Years and years ago, a friend offered us a tool that had been rusting in their shed. We had no clear idea what it was for exactly, but I have never been known to turn down tools so we collected it (it required two people to lift it) and installed it in a corner of my shed, where it sat rusting for the next eight years or so.

Meanwhile, Seatree grew and developed. We always made pieces that were framed, and at first, like many crafters, we used the ubiquitous and extremely cheap Ikea frames, but pretty soon it became obvious that we needed to move on from these.

We had moved house by then, and the rusty tool came with us. It was time to clean it up, oil it and see what it could do. Turns out that it is a foot-operated Morso cutter, essentially a massive guillotine for cutting wooden frames to a perfect mitre. It is heavy, industrial and looks like something from the 1950’s, and now it has new sharp blades, it goes through wood with remarkable efficiency.

Also, sadly it cuts though fingers with even more efficiency! Turns out the perspex guard is there for a reason!

At first, we made frames out of whatever wood we had to hand- bits of old oak ripped into shape on the table saw, driftwood shaped and sanded, even beach-found pallets shaped then painted.  This was sometimes problematic however as the wood was not always stable, shrinking as it continued to dry out, which of course, is not a good thing in a frame. Still, we managed to get some good results.

Eventually I tracked down a picture framing materials supplier in Glasgow. The first time I went in, I was faced with that masculine nightmare- the trade counter. Behind the trade counter was a man who spoke a different language to me and I stuttered my way through a conversation, conscious of the queue forming behind me. To both my embarrassment and gratefulness, one man stepped forward. He ran a picture framing shop in Kilmacolm and carefully told me what I needed, and offered as much future advice as I could ever need. What a lovely bloke.

These days, we make all our own frames, as well as the occasional job for other people. In fact, one of our poly tunnel frames was given to us in exchange for doing some picture framing, which has a certain symmetry!

For our ceramics, we have evolved a method for framing that uses deep box frames, without glass (glass tends to ‘flatten’ the ceramics, making it look less raw somehow), and then we ‘suspend’ the pieces by bring them forward on blocks, as if they are floating. This works particularly well on pieces of ceramics that are not fully straight, which enhances the ‘float’.

Here are some pieces of framing I completed yesterday. Some of them will be in our on-line shop soon!

Better get stuck in to the next ones…

 

Chris and I started our poetry and pottery business without any formal qualifications in our chosen artistic pursuits (English or ceramics.) This meant lots of trying, failing and experimenting but also lots of support and encouragement and tips along the way from others. We are so thankful to friends and family who have believed in us, to galleries and to fellow artists who encourage and inspire us.  How else do we learn if not from each other?

 

We love is to pass this on when we can – to see others exploring, creating, learning and surprising themselves. We run workshops in both pottery and poetry – or sometimes a combination of the two, which we love. Chris has also curated two books of other people’s poetry, giving many poets their first taste of publication, which he sees as a massive privilege.

 

 

There is some information here about our upcoming workshops... making some wee sculptures, a day of beach-combing, poetry and pottery, a beginners’ course, a workshop to make some whisky tumblers… We’d love to see you here. Clay is so therapeutic and we have a cosy garden workshop with a log burner and a kettle. As well as the planned workshops, we also take bookings for family groups, hen parties, team meetings or a group of pals just wanting an evening out doing something creative. Let us know your own ideas.

 

 

But I also want to let you know that we can sometimes hire out studio and kiln space to those of you keen to START your own creative hobby or business. We love seeing what others create – It may be from the same substance (clay) but what a variety of design and style is possible. It’s also fun opening the kiln to be surprised (in a good way!) by other people’s range of colours. If you fancy being a part of the gang, give us a shout – or if you aren’t local, maybe find out what is happening in your area.

 

As well as the creative side of what we do, there is also the less exciting, but essential, business of running a business. It can also help to share this process so we meet with others to review and plan and have even arranged a virtual group for encouraging one another to getting our tax returns done in April this year!

 

Small businesses are about relationships. How else could they succeed?