POTS FOR THE KITCHEN FROM THE SHED

Who's that bloke with his arm around my Mrs!

2009-07-13T17:04:00.005+01:00

Its only Dan Finnegan ! It was a pleasure to meet you sir, we had a really great night over at The Oak, I do hope we get chance to catch up again before you make your way back home and thanks for the nice things you said about us on your blog too.

A quick post for now got to get slip on some pots. Cheers all.

For Natalie

2009-07-05T18:03:00.018+01:00

Lots of working, early starts, late finishes, late night potting, early morning fishing, sun is shining :)

Just one more

2009-06-15T23:05:00.003+01:00

Why not just leave them round????..........

2009-06-15T19:16:00.004+01:00

............. I guess they just look like dog bowls that way! This one tells you what you should use it for.

Oval dish

2009-06-14T19:39:00.003+01:00

Note: No safety equipment was used during the making of this oval dish, I took the risk this time! This is the first one of these I have made in a while and it leapt off the wheel head, slip trailed onto clay body ( lazy decorating).

Still making, still working

2009-06-09T18:18:00.002+01:00

Madness

2009-06-02T17:30:00.001+01:00

A la Tustin

2009-06-01T23:02:00.002+01:00

Except I don't have the fluidity and skill that Sid had! Good fun never the less.

Mug shot

2009-05-31T22:46:00.001+01:00

Tis warm here this morn

2009-05-30T10:41:00.002+01:00

These is gonna look peachy hung in your garden right?!

Check out this link for inspiration and a bit o' history too.

Time and tide ......

2009-05-29T10:41:00.004+01:00

I'm still making lots of pots and working lots of hours at the plant nursery, just not doing so much blogging. I must admit it has lost alot of its appeal to me lately.

I had a fantastic demo / throw a pot day down at The Almonry Museum in Evesham on Saturday, a whole lot of fun even if the local press messed up the advertising, it meant I got to spend a little more time with each person who wanted to make a pot. The bowl in the picture was one I made while there that I managed to get home in one piece! Some of my pots will be on show there for the next few weeks and seem to be going down really well already. The museum is such a treasure chest of allsorts from this ancient Abbey town. I can honestly say that I have been visiting the museum since I was a very young boy and still I find something else I have never seen before. It was a real pleasure to get to spend the day inside this fantastic building, thankyou Tonia and team, I look forward to maybe doing more with you in the future.

Veterans day out

2009-05-10T22:17:00.004+01:00

I got all geared up and ready to make some pots this morning and was set on a big flowerpot mission as I have been making some large 10 and 14lb ones inbetween working all this week, and wanted to do more. After a phone call from a couple of mates who were keen to test the ageing process against our dusty old skateboards we headed out to a secret cotswold location armed only with wooden toys and beer, then onto the river in Mr Fords boat for more beers and much waffle. Good day :)

Tiddesley Woods Spring Open Day

2009-05-01T15:59:00.003+01:00

We are going to be at the Tiddesley Woods Spring Open Day near Pershore in Worcestershire on Sunday. It sounds like it is going to be a cracking day. I am going to be making a few pots in a little glade tucked away amongst the woods, so it's time to dust off the old kick wheel. Tig will also be there with plenty of lovely plants, handmade soaps and a selection of only the finest garden tools. The sun looks like it's going to shine and you can find out much more here.

The marquee and woodland glade will house over 70 stalls of local craftspeople and wildlife groups. Craftspeople will be showing and selling work in wood, silver, textiles, glass and ceramics. There will also be the opportunity to see traditional woodland crafts such as pole-lathe turning, carving, thatching, hurdle making and willow crafts.

In other news ........... If you look to the right of your screen you will see I have my very own Etsy store open. Not much in there yet but watch this space for more pots coming your way soon!

Blue Clay Pot

2009-05-01T09:25:00.003+01:00

I didn't think that there was too much rubbish in this Roman Villa Clay, but I was wrong! Still it was much nicer to throw than the Stoke Clay I normally use. This flowerpot went back in the reclaim and I spent a good couple of hours blending down one of my many reclaim buckets and passing it back through a sieve.

I am trying to sort out an Etsy shop this morning because I seem to sell a fair few pots to you lovely American readers and it will make the process a lot easier. I will only be putting smaller items in there for now, mugs etc. But if anyone see's a pot they would like to know more about please don't be scared of dropping me a mail - Mattgrimmitt@aol.com

Watch this space. Hope you all have a great day wherever you may be in the world!

Slipware Workshop

2009-04-30T12:42:00.003+01:00

Right then time to play catch up yet again. Last Thursday I accompanied The ambassador of Slipware, Jon Edgeler to Taena Pottery which is just a short hop from my home and the rather fine setting to A Slipware Workshop which takes place on Saturday and Sunday the 20th and 21st of June 2009. This I think is going to be one hell of a weekend with potters a plenty doing lots of demos and not just any potters, check out this line up .......... Doug Fitch, Hannah McAndrew, Paul Young, Niek Hoogland, John Hudson, Nigel Lambert, Philip Leach, Laurence McGowen, Peter Smith and Taena's very own Sean and Viki Casserley!!!! If you go to either the Taena website or the Long Room Gallery's which are linked above you can download a booking form or drop them a mail to find out more. What a line up and if you don't know about Taena's history check it out here. Sean and Viki are fantastic people and the pottery is in a typically beautifull Cotswold setting with easy access from the M5 Motorway. Ahhh the joys of Red Mud! Oh yes one last thing, John Edgeler has written a fine piece about Sean and Viki that appears in this months Ceramic Review, something else to look at. All for now, we are getting ready for a day of demos and sales (hopefully) in some lovely woodland in Pershore near my home but I shall write about that later today. Cheers all :)

No shovel, no bag, 3 mile walk back up very steep hill!

2009-04-19T19:10:00.009+01:00

This local blue clay usually fires a lovely pale pinky colour, there is 5lb 15oz there. We will see what happens. I have another bisc on now, more new pots on their way soon. Had to work at the nursery yesterday, extra well needed pennies so haven't got many new pots made this week really but have sold a few.

Sunday jaunts

2009-04-19T16:01:00.003+01:00

Flowerpots in use and a few new ones from the kiln this morning. Have been out to a secret location in the Cotswold hills with Tig today digging clay from a stream next to a big old Roman Villa site that unless you were local you would never know about, shhhhhh! Will post pics of the clay and maybe a vid of it being dug too in a while, there seems to be hardly any crap in it so fingers crossed I can just knead it up and throw a couple of small pots, maybe a couple more flowerpots for the few wild garlic plants that came back with us too.

Hot ones

2009-04-17T10:35:00.008+01:00

Just a quickie, must crack on. Pots from the kiln this morning, pretty happy with em. The triangular house sits above part of the river Avon next to a lock, not far from where we live, very pretty, must be odd living in there though!

A day for catching up with myself

2009-04-16T18:08:00.008+01:00

So yesterday was the end of my working week at the nursery and I woke up today with the intention of making a load more small pots to fill around these big jugs i've been making. Well that hasn't happened yet but there is still time if I get my skates on and i've already prepared some food for us for when Tig gets in from the start of her other working week in Cheltenham at a marketing company. I made us a Cottage Pie and couldn't resist putting a meander in the potato topping with a fork! The sgraffito jug is a big one and i'm pretty pleased with it one of the best yet I reckon. It will be for sale on Tig's website along with others if I ever get around to shooting some decent pics of the many pots that are building up here again, they all need homes! The little bowls are inspired by the old Winchcombe standard ware ones that old Mr Comfort used to make back along. I have a glaze firing on right now so more new pots tomorrow, this time I have the big Black over White leaf resist jug in along with half a dozen mugs of a new shape which i'm excited about seeing as i've widened the foot a fair bit and narrowed the top stightly as i've found the shape I usually make is a little top heavy when full of tea, function, function! All for now.

A week in pics

2009-04-12T22:25:00.011+01:00

25% Off at Futureprimitive today

2009-04-12T13:56:00.003+01:00

You may or may not be aware that my good lady Tiggy runs a mail order business from our home here. She sells amazingly beautiful plants and also makes fantastic soaps as well as all sorts of interesting garden nick nacks which NONE of you should be without! She amazes me with the time, energy and passion that she puts into every aspect of running this ship called Futureprimitive. Anyway 25 % OFF EVERYTHING ON THE WEBSITE TODAY, CHECK IT OUT!!! There are even a few of my pots on there too, which will turn into a full range on there by the end of today, the cameras snapping as I type, much to do! If that isn't enough Tig also writes an online blog too which you can have a gander at here.

"If you fancy a bit of an easter sunday shop....go to our website today for 25% off every single item...even items already reduced in the sale section! click here. To qualify, all you need to do is this: At checkout stage there is a box for 'customer comments'. In this box, just put 'SECRET SALE' and we will manually deduct the 25% discount. If you pay by paypal, we will refund the 25% discount. Simple as that! We need to make a bit of room in our little cottage for more product..."

Easy as that, well done Tig I am immensely proud and often in awe at how much you plough into this business xxxxx.

Something good to look at

2009-04-04T09:56:00.002+01:00

This has gotta be worth a look at if you are in the area or even if you aren't. Doug Fitch, Nic Collins and Simon Hancox all have a show together, opening today at the Long Room Gallery over in Winchcombe, Gloucestershire. Check it out! All three of them were at Derby College together back in the day and all three are amazing potters and top blokes to boot!

Too much to write about, just have a look.

2009-04-03T22:50:00.017+01:00

Better we had do us some blogging!

2009-03-26T20:53:00.014Z

Tick tock, tick tock ............. Where on earth have I been?!?!?!?! Well in a not so good place for a while and busy trying to settle into a new work pattern, don't get me wrong i've had a brilliant time just recently though! Well as you have all have no doubt read already on Doug and Hannah's blogs we got together for some fun and frolics up in Scotland a great time infact inspirational as it always is to spend time with folks like Doug and Hannah, two of the best people you will ever meet! Thank you both, it was a blast, hope we can all get together again soon. So I haven't made a great deal of pots in the past two weeks due to purely not having the time, which is frustrating as hell, but as I slip into this new routine at the nursery I slowly work out a new routine in which to make pots and it's starting to make sense again. Myself and Tig had the pleasure of meeting Mr Grit in the Gears himself a week or so ago too, himself a rather skilled conveyor of the language of mud and an all round nice geezer too. Cheers Dave, drop by again next time you are down this way and maybe make some pots too if you wish? Well I got a few big old low bellied jugs made using DF's add the neck technique, which works so much better for me than throwing in one piece with a big lump of clay and produces a better balanced pot too and also a new batch of amber glaze with my carefully measured guess the iron oxide for colour technique which I usually find a tone i'm nearly happy with after a few firings. So as you can see all is as it is here in Evesham right now and the sun still sets each eve and rises each morn! Hope all your worlds are good out there in blogosphere, I have alot of catching up to do.

Woe is me ...... and her!

2009-03-10T20:48:00.002Z

Been having one of those days today, I started my job at the plant nursery this morning after a really terrible nights sleep that consisted of bad dream after bad dream, all sorts of crazy stuff going on and most of it unpleasant. I stood in that greenhouse this morning in amongst the dozens of eastern European migrant workers and just thought, what on earth am I doing with myself now, why am I doing this and really did start to contemplate just getting a "proper" job again, full time, no financial worries, no doing bottom of the pile crap just to scratch through every month. It could all be so much easier, ha yeah right! I got home from work and Tig was still at her job so I sat down to have a gander at the blogs as you do and I read she is feeling the exact same way! It's so hard to stay positive all the time, I worry alot about what we both are doing and whether or not we can keep this up to see it through to hopefully less financially troubled times. I am only just scratching the surface of how many stupid things have gone through my mind today and I know it's another glitch in the road to wherever but the trough seems to get deeper every time I visit! Oh well, didn't stop my slipping a few pots when I got home. Have a nice picture of an old clay pipe being made to divert from this stoopid bloggers thoughts!