This is the first time I have ever 'Blogged' - I have an aversion to so-called social networking sites and only subscribe to one such site to keep in touch with news and photographs of two of our grandchildren and their parents in Australia and Germany. I had become conscious of how 'stale' a web-site can easily become, and felt that apart from up-dating it with new images of work and details of exhibitions and galleries that stock my work, a Blog would help to make it more interesting for you.

It seems to me that I have to consider three main questions - what form should my Blog take, what should I put in it, and how often should I add to it?

The answer to the first of these is partly down to guidance from my long-suffering husband who looks after my web-site and partly by looking at other people's blogs. What I do know - at the moment at least - is that I don't want it to be interactive. That may sound a bit anti-social, but I figure that if people take time to communicate with me through my blog then I have a responsibility to respond to them. And while I'm doing that, I'm not making (or spending time with those I hold dearest!).

The answer to the last of these questions is "I don't know yet". I think it is likely that I will add to it fairly frequently initially, but that it will become less frequent as I get used to it, and as other commitments (including making work for two events that I will be exhibiting in later in the year - see 'Exhibitions' for more information if you are interested) take precedence.

Now for what is perhaps the most important question - "what should I put in my blog?" and "what will interest people?". I think that a sort of diary of events that are either directly related to my work or that influence my work, with photographs as well as anecdotes, will be a good place to start. Then I will pester a few close family and friends to read my blog and give me feedback.

Well, if you've got this far, I should at least make a start. But where? Why not start with what is for me one of the exciting (and scary!) parts of the process - that of opening the kiln which I did this morning.

I loaded the kiln up on Monday ready to get up early on Tuesday to fire the kiln. I then had to wait another full day before I could open it, so the anticipation builds up!

Phew - out of 25 pieces of porcelain ware I have 21 that are worthy of being offered for sale. I had anticipated problems with the four pieces that I am not satisfied with, and the reassuring thing for me is that my judgement was right. I probably ought not to have fired them, but I still live in hope after I've produced a piece that I really like the shape of, even though I think there may be a problem with slumping or with tensions within the piece.

Anyway, back to the kiln opening.

One of the relatively unpredictable aspects in my work is concerned with glaze. I recently had a piece of work with a really interesting glaze, where the glaze was much bluer than I anticipated. I wondered if I'd had a 'senior moment' and forgotten that I'd mixed a new glaze, but it didn't match any of my test tiles, and I had no notes in my glaze recipe book, where I meticulously record each glaze. I had stamped the base with a small letter 'P' which told me that it was a piece I had made as an experiment with Parian ware instead of my more usual porcelain, so I assumed that it was the interaction with the different clay. This may well be the case, but this morning there were several pieces with a stonger blue hue to the glaze, although this time I know for sure that they had all been glazed with the same glaze (imaginatively named by me as 'Number 59'!) The piece at the bottom of the photograph (below) is the Parian ware piece, and the others came out of the kiln this morning.

 

I know that it isn't anything to do with the position in the kiln because the three little pots were adjacent to each other at the very top of the kiln, and the three larger pieces were relatively close to each other elsewhere in the kiln. It must then be due either to the interaction with the different clay or else to the thickness of application of the glaze (poured in, poured out for the internal glazes) and possibly to some settling of components in the glaze between stirrings. This doesn't concern me - I like this variation in my work and it is fascinating to see  such marked variation with identical glaze mix.

I included two pieces of stoneware into this firing which were made by two of our grandsons - the clay is Scarva Earthstone Original E65 and I used an opaque white stoneware glaze from Bath Potters. As with my porcelain work, I once-fired it, simply because it would have been too expensive just to do a bisque fire for their work, but also because they were frustrated enough as it is that their work had to dry out for such a long period between making and firing, and I didn't want to prolong the agony for them any more than necessary! Trust boys to make snakes! 

Our eldest grandson, who will be 9 soon, also threw some pots on the wheel and his younger brother made a flattened coil pot with lots of markings applied with found objects, but as I can't be sure that there are no air-bubbles which might cause the pieces to explode, I'm firing them separately in my test kiln, with fingers crossed! So far I've only fired the eldest boy's pots, but I'm really pleased and proud of him.

 

I have added a new page to my web-site - 'Conical vessels'  

Being a grandparent is a wonderful experience, and being with them is always a delight - even when they challenge my patience! So it seems not only natural but also important to write about them in my blog, but I am faced with a dilemma - do I use their names when referring to them or do I protect them by anonymity? I feel strongly that their protection has priority over other issues, so please bear with me if I use their initials only.

In my first blog I referred to a piece made by one of our grandsons that I hadn't fired.

This is the piece that our 6yr old grandson (M) made - I'd had to 'pop' a few air bubbles, and I had to fire it on stilts as he had made holes right through the base of the piece, but it came out really well and I only had a very small drop of glaze on the kiln shelf. Neither of them seem particularly impressed by the fact that their work is on my website and visible world-wide - maybe they're either too young to understand the impact of the internet, or else they, like many others of their age, are so accustomed to it that they are blasé about it? What was interesting though was M's comments about his snake by comparison to that of his older brother which he thought was better because the head wasn't so flat. I'm delighted that he is able to critically evaluate what he has done.

I've been updating my sketch book and reflective diary, and have just finished pasting in dozens of images from the International Ceramics Festival at Aberystwyth back in July. It was an amazing weekend with a wonderful mix of demonstrations, presentations, lectures, and exhibitions and a great opportunity to mix with so many people with an interest in ceramics - from well-known and well-respected ceramicists from around the world to those who have no professional involvement but just an interest. The most difficult thing I found was in choosing which of the many alternative events to attend, and there are some that I regret not being able to attend - including a talk by Henry Sandon about his 'desert island pots' - apparently he was really entertaining and witty. The next I C Festival is in 2011, so I will have to wait another two years for the next one. Some of you reading this may well have attended this year's Festival. I hope you enjoyed it - and learned as much from it - as I did.

One of the most entertaining people was Peter Hayes - his enthusiasm and eccentricity came across during his theatre-based presentation as well as his demonstrations outside where he was helped by his son Justin. They were making a water feature, using 'donuts' made from waste clay and all sorts of added materials, and using them to demonstrate raku firing. (although he claimed to hate the word 'raku' and gave a more colourful description of the process that probably isn't suitable for publishing on the web!) .   

I've cornered the market in ceramic donuts" he said. I'm not clear if they were going to burnish the donuts in the way they do with his other sculptural work, or whether they will remain as pictured - if the latter is the case I'd need to see it in action to make a judgement about it. It's certainly an interesting concept. I understand that they are still working on the piece, and have someone else on board to try to resolve the problems they encountered with pumping water up to the top of the piece.

One of the things I found so remarkable about Peter's work was the marked difference between the work immediately after firing and then the finished work after burnishing and other processes. These are some of the factors that make ceramics so fascinating for me.

 Peter's work can be seen on his inspirational website www.peterhayes-ceramics.uk.com/