Im Back Baby!

Well, it's been a minute since i've had my hands on a fresh batch of ceramics, and oh boy does it feel good to be sitting on some new shapes. A few weeks ago I picked up this cheap chinese wheel which cost me a grand total of £55 from facebook marketplace. My thesis is that it's not terrible! but you can certainly tell the difference if you've spent any time on a more expensive wheel. The main difference is how sturdy it is. Cantering more than 2 pounds of clay gets interesting. If its off balance at all the whole wheel will shake, so for ultra beginners using a wheel like this is probably best to start with a maximum of 500 grams of clay. 

My next challenge was to find a kiln to fire up all these mugs I've been throwing. This was fairly easy to be honest. While looking for a local resource for clay I emailed a local wheel throwing class in Lytham. This worked wonders as I met a lady called Helen. Not only did Helen hook me up with some clay, she also has a kiln! It's been a delight to get to know Helen! Once I had around 30 mugs made I shot Helen an email. This all happened way easier than I thought, (moving pottery around in a car is super stressful though) but I had zero casualties (broken mugs) touch wood!

I spent some time debating whether to make a small batch of glaze as im currently doing some reading into glaze making but i just don't have the space as im working out of my mums kitchen, i think i'd be crossing the line mixing raw glaze materials in a kitchen. I found a company called Northern Kilns. I took a drive over to check out their shop, which ended up being a potter's paradise. I ended up buying a few Mayco pre-made brush on glazes and a couple bags of clay. I drove home really excited to get into a glazing session. As per usual these sessions end up being really chaotic but with one thing in mind, 'let's get this shit done' it took me a fair few hours to finish glazing but it got done! Next I had to move glazed pottery back to Helens to do the final firing, this was new to me, it's a lot less stressful than moving greenware that's for sure!

Well the results are in, for the first batch I'm pretty happy with the results, there was one glaze that didn't quite settle and flow which was a pink that I used inside a bunch of mugs, these need to be refired to remove the pin holes. But the majority came out a great success, I really love these mayco glazes, the crystals on them really sparkle! So this friday! Tomorrow! I'm going to do a mini sale on my stories on instagram for my UK people. 

Ill be updating the portfolio section on my website with this batch soon.