Our October Studio Journal
October Week One - Slip and Scratch
With most crafts an array of the most wonderful words for technical processes and tools can be found, and pottery is no exception. We have things like ‘leatherhard’, ‘biscuit’, ‘chuck’ and many more. But this week I’ve been thinking about the word ‘slip’. Clay slip is clay mixed with a little water. It’s generally a lower viscosity than say, a lump of clay for throwing with, and can be used for slip casting - but in our studio we mainly use slip as a tool for joining components together, such as a handle to the body of a mug or a spout to a teapot. I was wondering why we call it slip and according to the internet the word ‘slip’, when relating to pottery, comes from the Old English, ‘slypa’, ‘slyppe’ - slime, paste, pulp, soft semi-liquid mass and is related to ‘slupan’ - ‘to slip’, which is from the root ‘sleubh’ to slide, slip. It’s quite obvious I suppose.
A new technique for me this week is sgraffito - which translates literally as ‘to scratch’ - in Italian. For the Shadow Mugs, for BATCH 1, I paint two thick stripes of slip pigmented with a dash of cobalt onto the sides of a leatherhard mug (we’ll cover that word another time!). Then I wait for the shadows. Our studio has roof lights at both ends and can cast the most wonderful shadows and therefore shapes onto our work - so I had the idea to use this natural and spontaneous pattern making to sgraffito onto the mugs. The only problem is that today is overcast. So I make my own shadows with a couple of anglepoises and some foliage.
Teapot prototype, October 2022
Week 2 - Clay Remembers
Teapots are being made this week and it’s been a while. Alongside our usual teapot design we’re working on a new teapot form and it’s in its first ‘iteration’. Designing new things takes us a long time- there’s usually an initial idea, then some time exploring forms at the wheel, then we usually finish one of these forms, glaze it- use it, interrogate its function. Then a first batch is made and this is where a lot of higher level development and tweaking occurs- subtle design choices, angles, and so on. This is the stage we’re at now- Matt and Luna are on the first batch production as I type. One of the most curious and seemingly anthropomorphic properties of clay is that it has memory. Matt throws the teapot spouts at the wheel. Visualise if you will a lump of chaotic particles being transformed into an elegant spiral of beautifully arranged particles. Well, that elegant spiral unwinds a little in the drying and bisque firing process - takes a breath out, uncoils. So Matt is one step ahead, pre empting this, attaching the spouts apparently cod-eyed. It’s a bold move. But when they’re unloaded from the bisque we all celebrate - they’re all straight and perfect.
Week 3 - New Beginnings
We’re in the business of routine and repetition and our work develops slowly, steadily, subtly - not to mention our processes are slow and careful. It can feel like a year can pass quite unremarkably, albeit swiftly. But every so often a whole load of change comes your way in one fell swoop. Arthur starts at a new school this week (this is the biggie); I went for a run in our new neighbourhood (no biggie guys!); and I’ve glazed some old pieces in new glaze colours. Starting at a new school is pretty colossal when you’re aged 6 and only just got over the shock of the starting at school full stop, but actually he handled it admirably. He accepted his shy-ness and nerves as being by-the-by - an unpleasant but not unusual side-effect and got on with it. I on the other hand felt terribly anxious all day long. The run in the neighbourhood was out of character, unplanned, but it felt extremely good. We’ve swapped tarmac for sheep fields and streets of terrace houses for barns. Nella and I did get chased by a herd of rams (I think), but we survived and I just hope the farmer was not watching me try to shoo them away - I feel like a real townie even though I’m a country girl really . I mention the last change about the new glazes on old forms because it serves as a reminder that you can change things up really dramatically with just one small action - the butterfly effect. In pottery, where everything feels so slow, controlled, it is good to know you can do something really different by just altering one component in the process. But really, I’m quite pleased that my life is relatively steady and predictable and that change is gradual and only occasional,, because honestly UK politics right now is providing enough drama and turbulence to last a decade.
Week 4 - The Shipping Forecast
It’s been a while since i’ve indulged in listening to the Shipping Forecast, tucked up in bed, with hot water bottle, musing over the faraway vessels and islands. It’s comforting to me because I don’t really know what they’re talking about so I zone out, enjoy the words and rhythm like a melody - a disengaged consumer. But at the moment, running a small business in this seemingly frenetic economy, I feel like I’m out at sea, wondering if anyone can actually hear me. Platforms such as instagram aren’t what they used to be in terms of engagement and I’m worried - worried whether we will make enough sales this autumn and winter because households are struggling and I suppose food and heating does take a higher priority than ceramics. I’m not alone in this worry - the majority of small businesses are going through the same anxieties - our cost prices just seem to be going up all the time. But we plough ahead anyway, we’ve got events to attend, Open Studios too, and we’re making plenty of pots for it. In the studio we talk about it a lot and we try to make pieces with an array of price points, old favourites such as tall mugs, but new and unusual things such as flower frogs (which will be ready in a few week’s time) - plus more expensive things like teapots. I worry that we’ll become what the shipping forecast is to me - a beautiful thing to behold, just in the background, disengaged. This Christmas my conviction to purchase from other small businesses and makers is stronger than ever - the sad truth is that if we don’t buy from businesses like this, they won’t survive. But these things tend to be expensive - in my family we’ve opted for Secret Santa so we can spend more per person and I’m starting now. Good things take time etc. etc.
This week Matt is refining a prototype for a restaurant in Miami - it’s a complicated design of three stacked components. He is thoroughly enjoying this challenge and I love seeing him so happy in the design process. Luna is making more dinner bowls and also pourers (it’s a complete joy to watch her attaching the spouts); Natalie is packaging orders mainly, also sieving glazes; I am glazing, glazing and more glazing - happily losing myself in the process. I have had little time to make a Studio Playlist this month so I asked our friend Josh if he would, and he did, and we’ve loved listening to it in the studio this week. Thanks Josh!
