Well, the holiday season is only just at an end here in Warwickshire and my thoughts have already moved on to what to produce for the forthcoming Christmas exhibitions. So this was me last week hard at it in the basement.
However, Alan suggested we needed more coffee cups so making anything to sell is on the back burner!
But I remember I promised to show you the finished pot that I began in blog 1.
Well, here it is and as you can see it's white, it's glossy, it's had blue glaze thrown at it and I'm distinctly in two minds about it. I think glossy is the main problem but I just don't know. What I tend to do in these circumstances is put it in the living-room and live with it for a while. I'll either warm to it or .........but Sheila you must remember what your teacher once said;
'Embrace your mistakes as they are your best guide to perfection"
Yes well, disappointment is very disappointing nevertheless.
But what better task to do in these times than take a trip down to the veg' patch to pick some successes. My purple - yes purple - tomatoes are not only as sweet as honey but are magnificently prolific.
However, the neighbours are screaming "NO MORE" and ducking and diving to avoid another bag, so soup is the answer. And Alan found a recipe that is so good I just have to pass it on.
1. Halve and roast your tomatoes until they burn slightly round the edges.
2. Fry some onions in a sauce pan then add the roasted tom's.
(you can add canned tom's at this point if you want to make loads like me.)
3. Throw in a good handful of washed red lentils.
4. Add a couple of pints of stock and a generous sprinkling of dried thyme.
Lid on and simmer for half an hour.
Liquidise in your whizzer and eat immediately or freeze for later. Delicious !
But from one oven to another, let's go back to the kiln in the basement.
My next glaze firing will be Alan's coffee cups and a few other pots. I have a small top loader which means that by the time I am putting the final pots on the the top shelf I sometimes have to unload to re-jig the bottom shelf in order to get everything in. What a performance.
Glaze sticks to my fingers, I sometimes have to do re-touching and all in all I don't want to keep handling the pots. My friend Moira who's a potter in Stratford-upon-Avon gave me an excellent tip.
Take your shelf and draw round it, either directly onto your workbench or a sheet of cardboard. As a pot is glazed it can be placed on the drawing. This enables you to see what's what without being bent double over your kiln, your head blocking out the light and your fingers accidentally brushing off glaze onto the shelf. Thanks Moira. So simple but I would never have thought of it.
Anyway, time for lunch I think. I wonder what I'll be having!!
Happy potting folks.
No comments:
Post a Comment