Bartmann

Picked this up the other day, along with the two slipped dishes, which i think are Middle Eastern (?)

... now I'll have to come clean to Jakki!..."they didn't cost much, i promise!"

I do like those Bellarmine/ Bartmann forms, this one is about about 9-10" tall. I'll get around to making my version of one at some point. Anyway, just thought I'd share it and get some pottery back on this blog! I've a couple of posts i need to do. Matt sent me a picture of a couple of little cylinders I'd thrown at his place and he'd slipped and decorated them, it was really nice to see. I also had my first throw on my wheel at the weekend.... hmmmm... mixed results! My first was the best and then i got distracted by the amount of effort the modified kick took to keep any speed up. Then I knocked one onto the floor, along with my glasses deciding to fall apart mid throw and fell straight into the tray of slop! sheesh. It was frustrating.. and messy! Anyway, i decided to do away with the modified seat and am going to stand and kick. I also had to figure out how to get a good brace for centering, the sides of the tray are flush to the wheel head. With no seated thigh to use i had to have a think. Think i may have solved it with a small plank across the tray, in front of the wheel. i can then rest on that to give me enough elevation to not skin my wrist on the wheel! I can easily remove it once i get going.

It was always going to be a steep learning curve!

I also realised the wheel wasn't quite level when i used it and I'm now concerned that i may have damaged it. It now has a slight clunk when i kick it, it was beautifully silent before. Trust me. Darn it!

Hey, Matt's just emailed me the pic of those pots. These are the 4th and 5th pots I've ever thrown, so it's very early (low cylinder) days ! It's a starting point and I'm glad Matt tarted them up. I'm sure I'll have a phase of firing/keeping my early ones, but as i go on I'm sure a lot more will just get reclaimed. It's always good to remember where you started!

I also had a chat with Kate, a local potter at the weekend and she has kindly made the suggestion of using her kiln. I need to have a chat about the logistics and practicalities of that, but I'm very(very) grateful to her for the offer. Things could move on a stage soon then. Now i need to get back into making things, my 2D illustration work and websites has kind of taken all my attention lately.

There, i managed to get all 3 possible  posts into one, bet you're thankful for that!