Table of contents for #53 in ClayCraft

Welcome Last year, I struggled. I don't know if it was 'long Covid', lockdown-related depression, something physical, or a combination but, by the end of the year, I couldn't concentrate, was exhausted, and my get-up-and-go had run, screaming, from the room. I'd also lost work, which was extra pressure – actually, it was a blessing in disguise because I couldn't have coped with my previous workload, feeling as I did. With more time on my hands, I wanted to do something that was just for me. I was going to start a side-hustle from my kitchen table. It could fit in around when I felt well enough to do it, I wouldn't have to answer to anyone, and it could happen at my own pace. I joined the thousands of…

Have you seen the NEW Smallholder? 6 ISSUES FOR £21 The magazine for the growing smallholder community ▸ Inspiration and information for smallholders of all sizes – from large productive gardens to multi-acre holdings ▸ Regular features on sheep, chickens, pigs, goats and alpacas ▸ Articles on fruit and vegetable growing, land skills and rural craft s ▸ A section dedicated to rearing and caring for poultry SUBSCRIBE NOW! shop.kelsey.co.uk/SHXS521 Or call 01959 543 747 and quote SHXS521 *When you pay by direct debit. For full price options, visit the website. Savings are calculated on a full UK subscription rate.…

DIARY OF A STUDIO POTTER Jeni Jacques Williams Lemon Studio Tel: 07813333235 Email: jenijacques@btinternet.com lemonstudio.co.uk JOURNAL ENTRY 8 Hello from sunny Cheshire. Summer has finally arrived, and over the past month, I’ve been involved in lots of exhibitions and had to restock a number of the retailers that sell my work. This got me thinking about the trials and errors I made in my first year and how you can avoid these by carefully selecting the best places to sell your work. I have previously written about how to identify your ‘perfect client’, which will help you take the next step to identify where will be the most appropriate place for you to showcase your work. It can be very scary to have an empty diary and a blank order…

SIMPLE HANDBUILDING PROJECTS: YOUR ESSENTIAL GUIDE FROM THE PUBLISHERS OF ClayCraft ONLY £12.95 INC. P&P* PINCH POTS / SLAB BUILDS COILS / GLAZING / TOOLS A selection of simple projects, covering all the handbuilding techniques. Learn the basics, then apply them to making your own decorative objects and functional ware. The easy to follow step-by-step guides are supported by advice on tools and glazing. Available for pre-order now! ORDER YOURS TODAY! Order online at SHOP.KELSEY.CO.UK/BKCRA19 Or call 01959 543747 and quote BKCRA19 Calls are charged at your usual network rate. Lines are open Monday to Friday 8.30am-5.30pm. *Price applies to UK orders only. EUR, US, Canada & ROW price: £14.95. All prices include P&P. Full terms and conditions can be found at shop.kelsey.co.uk/terms.…

PROJECT SIX SURFACE DECORATION LINO BLOCK IMAGE TRANSFER Linocuts are fantastic for creating a raised outline or relief images in slab work. The slabs can be built into many forms, which, once bisque fired, can be decorated either by infilling the design with coloured glazes for a finish not dissimilar to tube lining or by simply covering in coloured transparent glaze, which will break over the raised detail. YOU WILL NEED: ▪ A lino cutting board made from a sheet of 15mm board with a 15mm-square length of wood attached along the edge of one side and another on the underside of the opposite edge so that it can sit over the edge of a table ▪ A set of lino cutting tools – a basic kit comes with a…

IN THE NEWS NEW CERAMIC SCHOOL If you have a news story, product launch or details of some other topical item you’d like our readers to know about, email claycraft.ed@kelsey.co.uk Nottingham Ceramic School opened its doors earlier this year. It is run by Kit Anderson, the woman behind FOTO CERAMICA, who has taught ceramics for over 25 years, drawing on her experience as a professional maker, and her time running ceramics departments for FE colleges. She is joined by a small team of experienced tutors who are all makers in their own rights, and bring a wealth of expertise and experience to support you at each step on the ceramic making journey. The school offers a friendly and supportive creative space where everyone interested in learning to make with clay…

LINDA BLOOMFIELD SILICA IN GLAZES Continuing on from my articles on glaze ingredients in the past few issues, this month, I describe the various forms of silica and how they are used in glazes Linda Bloomfield is a scientist turned potter. More glaze recipes can be found in her books, Advanced Pottery (2011), Colour in Glazes (A&C Black 2012), The Handbook of Glaze Recipes (Bloomsbury 2014) and Science for Potters (The American Ceramic Society 2017). Her new book Special Effect Glazes, and the second edition of Colour in Glazes are both out now. Linda has recently launched her online glazing course, How Glazes Work, on her website: lindabloomfield.co.uk Silica is the main constituent of glass and glazes, also known as silicon dioxide. If we could melt it in a pottery…

PROJECT THREE ANIMAL FRIDGE MAGNETS This is another great little project to do with children, and although these magnets are made from firing clay, you could make them from an airdrying alternative and paint them in acrylic colours if preferred YOU WILL NEED: Note clay reserved for plaster work is okay to use, providing it doesn’t have so much plaster in it that it can’t be smoothed over. available from pottery suppliers or in smaller amounts from craft outlets ornon-absorbentboard orcardoutlinetemplate fordecoration forapplication available from craft outlets as rounds or in sheets to cut to size BEFORE YOU BEGIN: The quickest and easiest way to cut out the shapes is to use cookie cutters, which…

Confessions of a novice A CONVERSATION WITH TIM SEE Members of the Clay Buddies Facebook group will have come across Tim: answerer of questions, quasher of clay-myths and all-round clay community good-guy. But who is he, and why does he paint robot stories on his wood-fired pots? Tracey Parsons finds out! Those of a certain age might remember a UK cartoon called ‘Mr Benn’. There was a moment in every episode where ‘as if by magic, the shopkeeper appeared’. Tim See is the magical shopkeeper of the Clay Buddies Facebook group. In my imagination, he comments on every post, though this can’t possibly be true in a group of nearly 43,000 members. But ask a question, add @timsee and, as if by magic, he’ll probably appear. The reality is that…

PROJECT FIVE TRANSFERRING CHILDREN’S ARTWORKS TO CLAY If like me, you have kept many of your children’s artworks as treasures (for decades in my case), you will probably have found they have faded over time. So to keep them forever pristine, why not transfer them to clay? You will need: ▪ Clay of choice – preferably white-firing ▪ Rolling pin, 5mm-thick roller guides, plastic sheet ▪ Tracing paper, soft pencil ▪ Scoring tool/pin ▪ Underglaze colours to match those in the artwork ▪ Range of brushes for underglaze application including a very fine-tipped one ▪ Fine-textured natural sponge ▪ Transparent glaze Before you begin: There are many ways of transferring images to clay, with this one probably being the most simple and straightforward. Alternatives could include various methods of print…

ClayCraft BACK ISSUES £5.99 PER ISSUE INCLUDING P&P ISSUE 43 Thrown toothbrush holder Thrown soap dish Slab-built egg tray Pinched bud vase Slab-built fox Troubleshooting glazing ISSUE 44 Thrown tray & vase Partridge/pear tree candelabra Porcelain tree angels Leaping deer for walls Nesting dishes ISSUE 45 Thrown lantern Transfer-decorated coasters Porcelain squares Animal Christmas tree decorations ISSUE 46 Thrown bubble vase Artichoke-inspired art Pig money box NEW Diary of a studio potter: Jeni Jacques-Williams ISSUE 47 Thrown heart bowl & creamer Pinched cereal bowls Slab trinket dishes Slab wall pockets special ISSUE 48 Thrown lidded canister Pinched eggs Cylinder vase with tube-lining Egg bowl Hare on a hill ISSUE 49 Thrown bird bath Garden oya Pinched dogs MKM Tools spotlight Eastcott Studio update Zinc oxide glazes ISSUE 50 Thrown…

Stamford Pottery Market 10th anniversary! Potter Katherine Winfrey founded the Stamford Pottery Market to fulfil a vision to showcase the diverse range of work being produced by local potters and to support charitable causes. Held annually in the Stamford Arts Centre, the market proved a great success until the Covid-19 pandemic caused a pause. Katherine has handed over the organisation of the event to a committee of potters, who hope to build on her legacy. And after three false starts due to the lockdowns – the 10th Anniversary event can now take place in the Stamford Arts Centre Ballroom on 29 and 30 August 2021. Over 20 local potters will display and sell their work at this two-day celebration of ceramics. There will be something for everyone, from beautiful domestic…

GLAZING YOUR BOWL Whether working on a large or small bowl, the method for decorating in this style is the same – the choice of glaze is your own. A 360° protractor is useful for dividing spaces on round objects quickly and easily. If you don’t have one, you will have to measure and divide the space with a flexible measuring tape. Sit the protractor over the bowl and divide the circumference into equally sized sections with a small pencil mark at the rim. Cut yourself a card ruler – this is useful in this case because of its flexibility. Line the ruler up vertically with the marks at the top of the bowl and make another mark at the base. Now fix the thin tape from a base mark,…

PROJECT FOUR FINGER PUPPET HEADS This is a project to do with the children in the long summer holidays. We have used air-drying clay as an alternative to firing clay to speed up the process and make things easier for those who may not have their own kiln You will need: available from craft outlets like Hobbycraft or available to buy online orolddishformixing the colours tomakethebodies– available from craft outlets Before you begin: Air-drying clay is a completely different material from firing clay, so none of the rules for using it apply in the same way. You don’t have to worry about trapping air as the body won’t be fired, and water is perfectly acceptable to join sections together instead of…

PIZZA ANYONE? The potters from Muddy Fingers and The Clay Team share their clay oven project Since Marv built his first oven at the Bill Quay community farm in Gateshead, around 15 years ago, Muddy Fingers and sister company The Clay Team CIC have been making community ovens around the region and beyond. Earth ovens of various types are found in many cultures and countries, going back hundreds of years to when food was cooked using a wood source. They’ve been a massive part of community life, with one oven being used by many households to make the daily bread. It’s where people gathered to share recipes, food and have a natter. At Muddy Fingers and The Clay Team, we truly believe that bringing back this traditional cooking method can…

Doug’s DIARY (Photo: Layton Thompson) Summer is properly here now in Dumfries and Galloway. I know that because there was a midgie in our garden and in its own way, it told me; a midgie and about a million billion other midgies, and you can guess exactly how the midgie let me know. They’re horrendous here during the early summer months; insect repellent is essential before stepping outside. I’m complaining because I just went out to water the spuds and wasn’t wearing it, and I’ve been savaged! Oh, for the midge-free hills of Devonshire. Fortunately, that’s the worst of it, really. Apart from the midgies, the countryside is beautiful at the moment, and the days long, it goes dark at about 11pm, which catches me out all the time. The…

COURSES Do you run a course that you’d like to see here? Email claycraft.ed@kelsey.co.uk for free inclusion in our listing SCOTLAND STEF BAXTER POTTERY Courses: Handbuilding & throwing day class drop-in. Night and weekend classes. 1-1 tuition & Raku classes. Suitable for all levels. Open access coming. Dates: see website Location; Govan, Glasgow stefbaxterpottery.com CLAY WORKS STUDIO Courses: All levels from beginners to intermediate. Taster courses, general pottery and throwing courses. Open access facility for more advanced makers coming soon Dates: See website Location: Dumfries & Galloway clayworksstudios.co.uk DUNDEE CERAMICS WORKSHOP Courses: Classes for all levels from beginner to intermediate, for individuals and groups. 1-1 tuition available. Open studio access and kiln hire for members Dates: Throughout the year (see website) Location: Dundee dundeeceramicsworkshop.com FORGAN ARTS CENTRE Courses: All levels…