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These are worrying times. Faced with the known unknowns of Coronavirus, we are all having to take a step back from one another. We worry for our families and our friends. We worry for ourselves.

We also worry for our livelihoods. Our small business depends on gallery footfall and attendence at workshops, so it is likely that there will be some lean times ahead. But after a couple of days of anxiety about all of this, we decided that enough was enough. It was time to do something. It was time to reach out.

The internet, hitherto an mixed blessing, may save us all. It will allow continued connection, be a source of encouragment, and allow our fragile economy to return again to the beauty of simple trading, one on one.

To this end, we have been busy.

Firstly, we are updating our on-line shop, using a new platform. It has been a steep learning curve (for Chris – Michaela has no clue!) but we think it is working, and already looks mutch better. You can check it out for yourself here. We will be adding more pieces daily.

Next we have started to think about how we can connect with others who have found themselves cut off, in their own spaces. How we who are socially distanced become at very least sociably distanced?

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What we are thinking is something along these lines:

Pottery for the sociably distanced

Online workshops, based around clay being delivered to you and then skype/facebook tuition. This might suit families/household groups, or groups of friends – who would not need to be in the same place, thanks to the joys of t’internet. We could deliver the clay locally, and get it back from you to fire it in the kiln.

 

Poetry for the sociably distanced

Again, online workshops, led by Chris. One will be an intruduction and celebration of all things poetry, the other will be an encouragement to actually write something. Again this might suit families/household groups, or groups of friends – who would not need to be in the same place.

 

Sociably distanced artists collaboration

Alongside the above, we are toying with setting up some online meet-ups for like minded creatives who might like to thing about a way to collaborate in response to these strange times. A poet and painter perhaps, or a potter and a fabric artist?

 

Watch this space for more news…

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I love sharing the pottery space with others. Here are three friends, Karen, a potter, Lynne, artist and Yvonne, musician and artist – we had a fun creative session making ceramic bunting with all sorts of lovely textures and images and a lot of joy and laughter along the way.
Some days there is just me, and radio 4. Sometimes I am joined by Karen or by Chris and some days there are beginners in to learn. We also have folks dropping off or collecting pots to be fire or calling in to book in for workshops. I have some friends who just come to hang out and really want to help glaze as they find it therapeutic and a whole host of folks from the village who bring by boxes and packaging. we joke that folks used to come over with wine or biscuits and now it’s bubblewrap, but it suits us just fine.
It’s so lovely, making every day different. It’s also great seeing other people’s work and creativity. If you are nearby, do call in or if you are further afield find out if there’s a potter near you who loves to share their space too…
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I regularly run workshops and up until recently have had a box full of scraps of clay with glazes on I don’t even have anymore and would spend ages rooting through trying to find something similar to show what colour a glaze might be. That is because most often the colour in the tub does not reflect what it looks like on the clay once it has been through the firing process.
So, Karen and I scrapped the scraps and made ourselves a new box of glaze samples, each one numbered to take the guesswork out of it.
Below the number is a section with just the glaze, pure and simple.
Below that is a row of stamped letters so you can see whether the glaze will cover the letters or allow them to show though – important information.
Then there is a block that has been textured with a fir cone to see how the glaze reacts to textures and last of all the clay was covered with a strip of black slip to see what the glaze would like like on our black clay.
You can see three photos here – one shows a close-up of some of Karen’s glazes, one shows the whole gamut – you can see that there is a wide variety. Very few are ones I use regularly. Most are for adults and children doing workshops and I may use small parts of the them to add a bit of colour to a pot with details such as trees or flowers.You can see from the third photo the smaller selection that are my favourite glazes to use – it’s taken some years to reach that point of knowing exactly what i want.
And now we have black clay, I need to start thinking all over again!
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I’m not sure if that expression came from the Great Pottery Throwdown or if it’s been in existence for as long as kilns have, but many of us can be found uttering the words…
There was meant to be a series of photos taken as the kiln was emptied the other day, but I have to be honest, I was distracted by the arrival of the local fish van. We’re veggie but he sells also a great range of fresh fruit and veg, butter and cheese so we meet him at our gate every Thursday when he beeps his horn. Anyway, while I shopped, Chris kept emptying and I forgot to give him the camera.
There are at least two firings for each piece. In the first firing, a bisc, or bisque firing, everything gets piled in and stacked high but in the second firing, it has to be placed much more carefully. Nothing can touch each other, or it will fuse. Anything with glaze on or near the bottom has to be balanced on wee stilts. And everything has to be at least a centimetre from the sides or from the shelves placed above. This is called a ‘glaze firing’, the second and final one for us. Some people do extra firings, for transfers for example, but I stock with two for now anyway. Sometimes a piece isn’t quite right and I might add some more glaze and re-fire it but usually two is enough.
Karen says stacking the kiln is like a 3D game of Tetris. I love it. We often get left with one piece in our hands that doesn’t look like it will fit and that means it’s time to start swapping pieces round and creating small spaces for smaller shelves. I like to rise to that challenge. It will all fit… Usually. You will find me at this stage staring and sighing and shifting things round, determined..
As well as our own pieces, and Karen’s, we fire workshop pots and other potters’ work too. We aim to fill the kiln before firing but sometimes we need to put it on earlier before if someone has a tight schedule for an order or birthday gift. It takes quite a long time with the care that has to be taken for each piece. But the joy of emptying the kiln on a glaze day is great – well, usually. Sometimes there’s a disaster. Least said about that, the better!
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Our assistant and encourager, the lovely Karen.

 

Karen, we may have mentioned before, has been helping us out at seatree for coming up for two years. In that time, she has grown in confidence and skill. But all the time has been encouraging and cheerful – seeing us though an exhibition, shop orders and Potfest as well as a few Open Studios.

 

Michaela met Karen at a couple of community workshops and could see that she had a feel for the clay and a head full of ideas so invited her to come and help out in exchange for some pottery time of her own. It works well. Every hour that Karen helps out, with recycling clay, loading the kiln, tidying, making pots and glazing, or wrapping up orders, she gets an hour to get creative with clay herself, and gets her pieces fired for her. We don’t measure the cost of anything except the time. It puts us on a level playing field, an hour for an hour.

 

Karen can do so much more now than before, when helping us. Sometimes she has a better way of doing things that works. And she can tidy the drying room like it never gets tidied otherwise. But what’s been amazing to see is how her pottery has developed – she is very bold with colour and design, as you can see from these images. She is now starting to sell in shops and galleries too, which is so exciting and we feel so privileged to see how she is doing.

 

Please do check out her instagram and facebook feeds – Karen Middleton Ceramics. You’ll be glad you did.

 

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Running the pottery workshops and classes brings us much joy – it brings together our love of people, of creativity and our passion for clay. People sometimes come with friends or family and sometimes come alone. Every time though, it’s so lovely watching people begin to relax and chat and swop ideas. Every person brings their own creativity to the pottery and even with the same materials and instructions create something very unique. But always there is sharing – of laughter, stories, tips and tools.

 

If you live nearby, you’re welcome to come and join in the fun, or if you are coming for a trip out this way. Otherwise, we’d recommend finding your nearest class and getting stuck in!

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This piece was made for a lovely and very patient customer this summer after she saw one of our poetry people pieces on instagram and loved the words in one of Chris’s poems. It was for her husband and was a surprise gift with a special story.

I made the wee poetry people very loosely based on a photo she sent to me, so the height and hair were along the right lines. I’m no sculptor so couldn’t promise a likeness, but wanted them to reflect the lovely couple. Unfortunately, and you learn lessons all the time, she had quoted the first line of the poem so the first one I made just had that line, but it was the whole poem that she wanted so it got remade. Lesson learned, always double check I understand a customer fully before launching in. Once the customer finally received the piece, she sent me a lovely photo of it in place in their home. I love making things that have a meaning and Chris’s poetry brings words of hope, comfort, challenge, joy…

It was Cowal Open Studios recently and it was so lovely sharing conversations with people about what they saw in the words and images in our ceramic pieces. Thank you everyone for being a part of the seatree story with us. It keeps us going.

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We both work together on some of our pieces and the ever-popular fishy clocks are one of our joint projects.

We’ve been making these for a long time and keep on working on new ways to keep them fresh looking. Chris has acquired new tools over the last year which is helping hi to cut finer pieces of the driftwood, which eats the saw blades, it seems. Sometimes he leaves the bottom edge curved as he finds the driftwood and sometimes he cuts a neat rectangle.

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We also used to cut the fish by hand but it was quite time-consuming and not always accurate so we now have a special cutter. It’s  of the fish very therapeutic part of the process, rolling the clay, cutting and then smoothing the edges.

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And we’ve started to mix some glazes to add a bit of vibrancy – it makes a lovely change for us to be laying with glazes in this way. We add on the glaze, let them dry, then sponge the edges to give them a really neat finish. For many years, I’ve used cut up cheap bits of sponge but I’ve since discovered mudtools pottery sponges and oh, they’re a joy to use.

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I think these colourful glazes might find its way onto some other pots. Watch this space. Do you like the new look clocks?

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You’re welcome to ask us any technical questions, or if you would like to commission one or find out if we have any in stock, please give us a shout.

 

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Every now and then, I make something I really like. This is one of them. It sold at Potfest earlier this year. I’d love to see where it went. It is one of my favourite poems by Chris and I’ve also been wanting to have a play at making something larger and also try incorporating some nails into the clay – weird, I know – but I think it worked. It’s another team effort –  as well as writing the original poem, Chris also framed the piece. He now has the garage set up fr framing. nobody uses their garage for cars, do they?

 

I’d love the challenge of another large scene – why not send me a photo of your favourite place and I’ll see what I can do?

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There is so much to running a pottery business and this photograph kind of resembles a lot of it.

In it you can see some of our work which has been made for orders or for the upcoming fairs. We have an order book that thankfully is never empty. We could do with being in the studio every day but there’s other things need doing too…

You can also see some work by Karen Middleton who helps me out once a week in the pottery in exchange for her own making time. You can see her work and writing on her website blog Karen Middleton Ceramics.

Amongst the work on the table includes some pieces that get sold on Etsy – including some pieces that didn’t come out of the kiln the way I wanted them and so have been re-glazed and re-fired. There are also some pieces still waiting to be glazed, the white pieces at the end of the table that didn’t make it into this firing. They are waiting their turn.

If you look closely too you can also see a few tiny things made by the Kids and Clay youngsters for their model village as well as a couple of trial pieces that they have used to test out some glaze mixes…

There are some tiles made by one of our regular Wednesday night potters – trying out different surface techniques ready for when her bigger pieces are fired and need to be glazed.

And finally there are some bowls that will be added to shop orders who have been patiently waiting quite a while as I catch up from Christmas orders…

So you can imagine how busy the pottery studio is with shelves for pots that are drying, partly, made, glazed… shelves for kids projects and finished pieces waiting to be packaged up…

 

I think I need a second shed…