Our August Studio Journal
I’ll be frank, I’ve been short on time this month so this is a super concise edition of our monthly studio journal. School holidays, preparing for BATCH, consuming and preparing cheesecake. A massive shop update. Packing pots for days. It’s been a month!
Week 1
A brilliant, refreshing, if unrestful, trip to Pembrokeshire. I’m sorry, camping with kids should be considered work, albeit fun work. We swapped the clay of our Sheffield studio with the warm wet sand of the St. David’s Coast and I did my best not to fill my bags with rocks and shells to make into glazes (don’t worry I left everything as I found it).
Week 2
A week as a motion blur. No words were written. But at the end of the week we did cook up a big feast, and had a little photo shoot using our tableware, for a pre -order project coming soon.
Week 3
We prepare for a two launches - the pale stoneware update and BATCH, which opens on the Bank Holiday Monday. Natalie spends much time photographing and adding inventory. My mum brings me cosmos from her garden and I spend some time arranging them in our Autumnus vase, which is for BATCH - it comes together easily and naturally. Phew.
Matt I and work on spreadsheets instead of having our hands in clay, our bodies at the wheel, and so on, a necessary evil. But there is time for making too - despite the fact that BATCH 1 isn’t yet launched, he starts exploring new forms for BATCH 2 - teapots. Pottery is slow so we need to start working way ahead of time. I ask Matt to throw a serving bowl so I can make a film. Luna makes candleholders for autumn and some exciting new test forms for a festive something special. I order more beeswax candles.
There is also river swimming at Rivelin to cool us down. I don’t wash the river out of my hair for days. A trip to Hardwick with the children and my parents where we play tennis on the lawns and my mum is so competitive.
Despite the hot weather all the talk of autumn and planning for future goes straight to our stomachs - we make a brisket, mac and cheese and chilli for a family meal - and a baked cheesecake. Summer isn’t yet over, we have a game of cricket afterwards to burn some of it off.
Week 4
The school holidays are at the dregs and the attention is directed towards a new term and return to routine. Sports camps, long days at nursery, allow us to dedicate our energy to the BATCH launch at the end of the month, Arthur joins us in the studio some days too. Luna troops away quietly, at her wheel, carefully producing pots to replenish our stocks with, to keep our shop stocked and happy and ready for a (hopefully) bustling gifting season, which will start before we know it. We get a new stamp delivered for BATCH, based on my brushwork - I feel like a graphic designer. Also some beautiful new paper ordered from GF Smith for the gift / welcome cards. Finally, it feels like months of planning, tweaking, playing around and sometimes failing, sometimes succeeding, has paid off - things are coming together.
