A Plate from the Past

I made a comment on a blog a few weeks ago and I cannot for the life of me remember which one it was but it was at that moment about pottery with bees on. I said in my message that I would post one of my chargers with the bees. The blog has revealed itself to me it is Brampton Pottery. Thanks for the comment Margaret.
The photograph above is of one of my very early plates which I made in about 1993, it is thrown and approximately 22 inches across. All the slips are very simple; white Cornish clay and black slip from manganese. I made all my slipware with these natural colours until one day, quite suddenly I got colour, it was just as the century turned.
Have a look at this amazing pot on The End of History, I love this blog, it throws up some really interesting pieces.

An Olive is an Olive

I am back in Spain at last, although not quite back into the pottery yet. I have been in there and reminded myself of all the leather hard pots that need attention and gazed into the kiln which needs firing very soon, I just need November to arrive and then I am billed for phase 3 tariff in that month and not October. It takes a while to get everything into order after a spell in England you know.

The bike is fine (you will of course be pleased to know this) and it was the second thing I checked when I got back. Here are few pictures of the guys in Granada to show I got my priorities right!

It is still very dry here and after the riot of deciduous autumn colour of Sussex it is a bit of a come down, but an olive is an olive at the end of the day and a leaf is a leaf.

As the Mat Hits the Bottom

This is such a great picture by Stanley Spencer and I used it to illustrate the latest word on Verification Vocabulary over on the other side. I am back to the studio next week. I feel like I have been away for absolutely ages. And I do so love a helter-skelter.

Where's Kitty?

I am sorry that the blog is so quiet at the moment but I am taking an enforced rest after surgery. It all went very well and I will be posting again soon. I plan a trip to London in a few days to see the galleries and hopefully the V&A ceramics collection. In the mean time I got the cats to keep me company here in Sussex.

Tenderness Completed

On The Theme of Tenderness

Another plate; this time it is my old friend Mr. Whippy. I am so fond of this image not just because it is lip-smacking but because it reminds me of my childhood and my Mother at all stages of her life. When I was a small child I remember my first soft ice cream standing in a huge green field, passed down to me from a van, I even remember the dress I was wearing, and it had umbrellas on it. I remember everything about that day, from the moment I had the ice cream to bed, but it is the curious things like feel of the cold steel of the slide in the play park and the colour of the bed sheets and the smell of my silky bear. Isn’t it odd how these moments stay with you forever?

When my mother had Alzheimer’s I used to try and visit her with stimulating ideas or objects. One day I took her a Mr. Whippy. She was just as overwhelmed by it, as I was when I was 6. Shortly after that (4 years ago) I did my first work on Mr. Whippy ice creams. I continue to work on them because I uncover those tender moments. And I make them all for her, so she knows I never forgot them.

Picture of mummy under the umbrella. I am in the foreground and my sister on the right. I am sure we should not have been drinking!

El Boliche

This weekend has been the most stunning weather in Granada and it could not have been better for the photo shoot of a brilliant bar in the city. El Boliche is not really a biker bar but bikes are very much part of the place, that and the rapid service, oh yes and sumptuous kebabs.
Mi marido is building the web site for the bar and Simon Chapman a photographer from Malaga came and did the shoot ( I held the shinny gold circle for a bit) and these are some of his shots. As some of you may know Andrew and I both ride Harley Davidson motorcycles and so obviously this is why we found this bar.





I will let you all know when the web site goes live. More pots tomorrow, I hope....but the weather...oh it is just so...so...diverting!