This Sunday I will be taking my potters wheel to the Melton Country Fair. I did this event last year and it was great fun with an endless stream of people all very keen to get their hands dirty throwing a pot, many of them for the first time.

It was a really lovely event last year with some yummy food stalls, and all sorts of interesting things going on that I mostly missed, I did manage to catch a glimpse of some indian runner ducks being rounded up by sheep dog though …. sweet!

This year my friends Faye and Jo are going to fire the Raku kiln too. I can’t wait to see what the nice people of Melton think of their freshly painted pots being dragged from the kiln red hot and thrown into bins of sawdust and the ensuing flames and smoke!

After the weekend I’ll post some piccies of the fun and games.

For sale:

Jigger arm, Jolley cuphead and mouldmaking block and case. This has been adapted to fit on a standard Alsager wheel, all you need to do is unscrew the wheelhead, replace with the cuphead and bolt the arm into position. £75 buyer collects from Loughborough or delivery possible at exta cost.

For sale: Lovely bespoke designed and hand made kiln shed! Perfect if you don’t have a garage or similar to house your kiln in and don’t want to fill your studio with kiln fumes. There’s a hole in the roof to allow for the flue, a small hole on the side to run wiring in for the electric controller and double doors for lots of access when packing the kiln. £100 for the shed (kiln and chimney not included!) Buyer collects or an additional delivery cost might be possible.

These were evening sessions with the RawArts group from Rawlins College. In the first session the group made tiles and decorated them using stamps I’d carved for them and then we Raku fired in the second week.

Many thanks to my friend Faye who came and got stuck in, she was a fantastic help!

The devastation of people’s lives in Japan by the earthquake and tsunami is almost impossible to take in. Having visited Mashiko a couple of times it has also been very sad to see and read what has happened to the potters lives in that community. Euan Craig’s blog is a heart wrenching account of his personal experience of this disaster.

www.euancraig.blogspot.com

The Leach pottery has launched an earthquake appeal for Mashiko Village at:

www.leachpottery.com

One day childrens Raku workshop organised by Charnwood Museum’s Artzone art club.
(Many thanks to Jemma Bagley for the photos.)

more information about this event.