Iced Fingers

No, not Iced Fingers as in those sickly finger-shaped buns with tons of icing on top! I wish!

I'm on about iced fingers dangling from my frozen hands when I'd finished packing this lot above and more into my kiln in the garage where the temperature inside was minus seven, yesterday!

Today, when I went to take it all out of the kiln, I had to pick my way through this white stuff that had landed overnight.
The kiln is behind that door, across that snow.

It's precision stuff, packing a kiln with glazed pots. For the uninitiated amongst you - if two pieces touch each other, they will bond together and be pretty much ruined. It takes time and dexterity - a dexterity which is nigh impossible with numb, aching, freezing fingers. And it can't possibly be done with gloves on.


But, I was lucky, and though I squished everything onto these shelves as tightly as possible, nothing fused together.
I'll show you some of this stuff in more detail at a future date, but for now .....

I am so pleased with these two large bowls. They're part of the new direction work I was talking of at the beginning of the year where I am concentrating more on complex borders, than the inner design.


This border pattern was not toooooo bad to glaze - a tad time-consuming but worth it.


But I have to say that five minutes into hand-painting the glaze onto this one below, I began to wonder why I had done this to myself!


But I'd started, so I finished ..... sometime later!


And what happened to the icey fingers? Well, great fun was had, placing them on the warm flesh of various family members, before I eventually placed then on top of the aga to thaw out.

Well, you have to have a laugh, don't you? Reminds me of someone who used to stir his hot tea with a teaspoon and then touch the back of your hand with it - just his little joke!

Are you a practical joker or do you hate them?

Bye for now.

x Cathy

Fables and Legends

I love pottery and I love poetry so it was probably inevitable that one day I would combine the two. I am so old that I come from a time where your schooldays were spent learning great chunks of verse by heart. So now, when I can no longer remember what I went into the next room for, I can still recite poems I learned as a ten year old!

'Rats!
They fought the dogs, and kill'd the cats,
And bit the babies in the cradles,'

That was my favourite line as a kid - in the tradition of the best fairy tales, the imagery in Browning's 'Pied Piper' is wonderfully graphic and gruesome.

'Split open the kegs of salted sprats,
Made nests inside men's Sunday hats,'

And of course, every good fable has to have a moral to it and this is no exception; See what can happen to people who do not keep their promises!

I may be the only potter to decorate their pots with images of rats - but what fun I had doing these.



And so I moved on to an Arthurian Legend next.

The Lady of the Lake.

It's not an accurate depiction, and I have learnt a lesson here about doing better research next time, but I'm pleased with it nonetheless.

The patchwork pieces are still on-going, but I'm hoping these new pieces will find favour somewhere, as I need to 'mix it up a bit' in order to keep things fresh and challenging.

What are your favourite childhood stories? Maybe I'll put them on a pot!

Hope you like!

x Cathy x

New Year, New Direction

Happy New Year everyone if it's not too late to say that!
It seems like you have all done half a dozen blog posts whilst I have been having a laptop-free break!


The new direction I am taking this year pottery-wise is to concentrate more on the border around the design, than the central pattern itself. In other words, the borders will be more intricate and the central design will be quite simple. This block above is called 'Windmill', but the border is all mine own.


As this series of bowls has developed, I have focussed more and more on the borders, as they play such a pivotal part in 'setting off' the piece as a whole.
The block above is called 'Nelson's Victory', which should go down well in these parts, as old Horatio was a Norfolk boy!


I made these two just before Christmas. I have just done two more with really complex patterns around the border. They're waiting to be fired at the moment, but am pleased with the way each piece moves the whole process on a bit further.

So - did anyone make any New Year's Resolutions?
I did, but it's not going too well so far!

I resolved to be MORE SELFISH! In a good way!

In other words, I plan to do more things for myself and less things for other people who, when I last looked, had not lost the use of their limbs. They know who they are!
As I say, I haven't made a good start, but am persevering and becoming a tad unpopular in certain quarters!

Now I'm off to catch up with all your news. Looking forward to sharing 2012 with you all!

Cathy x

Giveaway Winners and Christmas Angels

So, it's the last day of November (can't believe it's come round so quickly!) and as promised, here are the Snowflake Giveaway winners' names drawn out of the new hat (not yet worn!).


Thankyou to all who entered and to all those who are new followers - it was a lovely way to make new friends. The winners are a nice mix of old and new bloggy friends. If you could all drop me a line with your postal address, I'll get your snowflakes and other bits and bobs sent off as soon as possible. Email: cathy.daniel@virgin.net.
Hope you like!



So, now that excitement is over, what other Christmassy things have been happening round here? Well, I've been making lots of angels and lots and lots of little angelic slippers with hearts on them, as you can see here.


These angels seem to sell well each Christmas. They are all unique, handmade and individually glazed and look great all sitting in a row on the mantlepiece.



Personally I think they are a bit, well, quirky - but maybe that's their appeal.

They each have their own, slightly odd, facial expression - a mixture of surprise and total bewilderment - which is pretty much how I look in the run up to Christmas!

Bye for Now

x Cathy x

Christmas Giveaway - Come and Get It !

Now,
as promised,
here is the giveaway!

THREE ceramic snowflakes to be won (one each!) by just leaving me a comment here. No hoops to jump through - just be a follower of my humble blog!

Obviously, if you want to spread the word and it fits in with a post you're doing, that'd be great, but no worries either way.

Winner will be picked out of my new winter hat in three weeks' time on last day of November, in good time for posting to you for Christmas.

For more details and pictures of these, see previous post below.

Good Luck one and all!

Bye for now

Cathy

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

Well, OK, maybe not just yet! But I have been up to my elbows in Snowflakes just lately. There they are above ready to be fired and here they are below after their second firing.

As you can see, no two snowflakes are the same, just like real ones. I did wonder if that were really true though, so I did some research on your behalf (that's ok, it was no trouble) and the answer I liked the best is :

How can you ever be sure no two snowflakes are alike since you cannot possibly check them all to find out!


They've yet to get their little hanging wires attached, but above are this year's and below are last year's. This year I came over all sensible and just stuck to three colours - red, green and gold - which is more traditionally Christmassy, whereas last year I just went a bit mad with them.


The actual scientific answer is of course that some small 'snow crystals' (kind of embryos of your fully grown snowflake) can look the same, but no two 'complex snowflakes', out of all those made over the entire history of the planet have ever looked completely alike. I find that fact staggering!


Anyway, my own 'complex snowflakes' are now featured in the Christmas Catalogue for Norwich's famous independent Department Store, Jarrolds, along with my angels and other decorative bits and pieces.



They are selling at £7.00 each, which is a whole pound less than last Christmas, so they are an absolute giveaway!

And a Giveaway is precisely what they will be, here in Blogsville, in a few weeks' time, when I get back from a little jaunt I'm now off on!

p.s. Sorry for mentioning Christmas in October, let alone SNOW!
Perish the thought - literally!

Bye for now

Cathy x

Textiles and Ceramics

If you're a regular viewer, you'll know that a lot of my pottery is influenced by all kinds of textiles and needlework, particularly patchwork quilting, but this particular piece is based on the gentle art of applique.

I cut out individual patches from the clay slab, applied motifs to each one and impressed some stitching around the edges. Then into the kiln they all went.

And out of the kiln they all came. Here they are put together roughly on a black background, but eventually they will be mounted properly onto white board ready to be hung on a wall.

And speaking of wall-hangings, I was absolutely thrilled last week to win this wonderful creation from Sue's blog, @Home. My second win in as many weeks! How lucky is that? What a wonderful world blogdom is!


This is one of Sue's lovely textile paintings, quilted with machine embroidery. This kind of cleverness always makes me wish I could sew! This came in the post along with the little home-made card below which (from what I can tell !) is also a textile painting, sewn onto card and highlighted with gold. It is quite exquisite. Thank you Sue!

Quite what I have done to deserve all these treasures recently, I do not know! But it does remind me that I shall have to get a Giveaway of my own sorted out fairly soon, so watch this space.

Bye for now.

Cathy x