I’m very conscious I should be blogging about the first few firings of Kevin the kiln, or today’s mildly epic glazing session, or the latest shop updates, but actually, the biggest thing that happened today I think is – I sold one of my absolute favourite pots.
I don’t know who has it (I was so busy glazing upstairs today that I missed the new owner coming into Brougham Hall), but just in case you think ‘ooo I’ll have a look at the website on this lady’s business card’ I thought I should do a post here to share with you why I am so pleased that this pot has appealed to another person. I also wanted to write a little about the thought process behind it – and, of course, to say that I hope you get as much enjoyment from owning (or gifting) it as I did making it.
The photo below is the pot with the view that inspired it down by Ullswater, when the trees are green but the sky is sort of washed out and the lake is reflecting that. When I look at this view – as I often do when swimming – I see these bands of greens and browns and bands of white and then the movement of the water. I don’t see any blue!! So all of things I notice – the washed out sky, the greens of the fells and fields – is what has gone onto the pot. There are some deep carvings to give movement, the white bands above and below for the sky and surface of the lake, and then the greens and browns (from where I have really layered the copper oxide on thickly) in the middle.
I know the obvious thought is that lakes/water as blue – and yes I do dip a lot of my pots in blue glazes – but often the lake is grey, or grey with a shiny white wash and some of my best swims have been when the lake is totally covered in mist and everything is white. So although the green-white combination is probably the least obviously ‘drawn from the lake’ idea, those are the colours that resonate in my head when I’m thinking about it and this is the sort of thing that I’m looking forward to exploring more deeply next year as I get going with my own glazes and my own kiln.
