​I thought I would share with you some of the magic of pottery. Even by showing and telling, the magic will remain. watching the clay go from a cold, damp material to a finished colourful piece… Read more below…

​The first part of the process is to prepare the clay. It is cold and slightly damp when it comes out of the bags it is delivered in, but soon warms to the touch. The clay has to be kneaded, a bit like bread – the reason being to get rid of air bubbles and to make the clay useable. The air bubbles if left in can cause destruction in the kiln as the air expands in the heat and explodes, taking with it all the other pieces round-about. Not a pretty sight… Once the clay is kneaded it can be used on the wheel or for hand-building. Here you can see I have rolled out some clay and cut some shapes – the rolling pin and cutter are typical kitchen items but the knife is a pottery knife, at a slightly different angle to usual knives. The clay is rolled out on cloths or it would stick to the worktop.

​While the clay is still wet, slip and texture can be added. I make the fish eyes with the end of a kiddie’s paintbrush, then add the pattern by using the crocheted doily – pressing it in to the clay creates a beautiful pattern which is then highlighted with coloured slip – a watered down clay to which colour is added using chemicals. Maybe you think the doily is too pretty for getting so dirty but I can’t resist using it!

​The fish then need to dry. Once the clay is dry it can’t be re-shaped so while it is still wet I shape it. If the pieces are to be flat then I would put some plasterboard on top to keep it flat while it dries, but I like the fish to have some shape, so I lay them out with little pieces of sponge or newspaper to give them curves. It might take a day or two, or for bigger pieces a week or two, to dry out enough. Things can’t go into the kiln until they are dry – they would break if they still had moisture in them. Wait, wait…

​Once dry they can be fired – another wait while the kiln reaches the right temperature – maybe 1000 degrees or 1200 degrees depending on which clay and glaze I have used. Then another anxious wait while the kiln cools… usually the next day. Then the coloured glazes and oxides can be added. By now the clay is light and hard, like the  half-glazed fish in the picture. The sponge is used to wipe off excess glaze or to deliberately remove layers of glaze to reveal texture beneath.  The glazes and oxides don’t always look the way they will once fired – it’s a trial and error process, and test pieces are needed so I can remember how the pale blue above turns into a rich a mottled sea-blue…

​If the fish are glazed on both sides for the shoals they have to be hung up to dry. That’s when my fellow potter, Pauline, walks in to the pottery and knocks them off their drying points as she is taller than me. The surviving fish can then go back in the kiln for another day of firing and waiting. If they are only glazed on one side they can go straight onto the kiln shelf, so long as the shelf has been protected with batt wash. If they have glaze round the edges they have to be lifted onto little stilts, or like the fish above they need to be hung on little racks to as to lift them above the shelves.  The kiln goes on again and that’s when more magic happens with glazes reacting to the heat and to other glazes and to their position in the kiln… Wait, wait again…

​Once the pieces are out of the kiln, often still warm to the touch as I am so impatient, they need to be finished and assembled. Any drops of glaze need to be removed from the kilns shelves, or splinters from the backs of pieces. The fish are then mounted on driftwood clocks made by Chris, or into frames and mounted on materials I paint with sea colours. At least for this bit I get to sit in the dry, warm dining room. Here is one of the finished pieces…

I spend hours in my wee pottery studio – it is in the cellar of our house. It’s a wonderful space to share with others, a family member or friend doing pottery at the same time or beginners there to learn, which is always a joy. But more often than not, it’s just me.  I am realising that I don’t often do silence as often as I thought I would – on the first step in to the pottery I reach for the light switch and on the second step in I reach to switch on some sounds!  You can read more below…

My station of choice is Radio 4. You might have noticed that already if you follow me on Facebook. It’s a bit of an addiction I think. I have tried to listen to new stations, stretch my horizons a little, but it doesn’t last long. There is a rhythm to my day with Radio 4. One of my favourite programmes is Desert Island Discs. I just  love listening to folks’ music choices. One Hogmanay our groups of friends all chose four songs each that they would take to a desert – it was amazing what we learnt about one another even having been friends for so many years.

But – with poetry and words featuring on so much of what we do I have realised that talking stations don’t work! I keep putting the wrong word in – I have even fired some with random words or repeated words, which is really frustrating! So that’s when my MP3 player comes into its own. It only works on ‘random’ these days – too much clay and dust! It seems my collection is very random too! Pottery is such a therapeutic thing to do – it really slows me down, and I have to focus on what I am doing, so I love classical music. It can drift through the space and not distract me and it adds to the feeling of stillness. I particularly love Bach – such a steady rhythm. Here is a clip of my favourite piece –

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCicM6i59

But having said all that, when the thinking and designing and making is all done, and the pieces have been fired, then comes the glazing… It’s a funny process – getting things out of the kiln when they are glazed is so exciting, but doing the actual glazing can be quite a chore. That’s when the random songs are best – songs to sing along to, try and learn the words to, hum melodies to – good job the neighbours are’t very close – and songs with meaning and connection. I relish my times in the wee pottery, and feel so lucky that pottery is the craft that chose me – there is so much to lose myself in and a space I can make my own, and Radio 4 and my random collection of music fit in just nicely.