THE STUDIO & GARDEN
THE STUDIO - PROCESS
COLLECTING CLAY
OPENING THE KILN
OPENING THE KILN
I live in the Potteries so I'm very fortunate that Potclays are practically on my doorstep. I love this shopping trip, going in person to collect and checking out the wide range of tools and equipment they always have. Three different clay bodies this time and a lovely new Mud Tools wire that's a dream to use after my old one.
Opening the kiln for the first time three days after firing - it's actually my least favourite bit, months of work - one chance - always risk. This
firing was 16 hours long checking the temperature every hour, 35 pieces of work & in the end 3 casualties - not so bad.
CLAY SLABS
A little insight into rolling out clay slabs ready for building. I would probably prefer to stretch a new clod of clay rather than roll where you use gravity and momentum but you're going to need a substantial work surface for this and mine is glass.