Street Market with my potter "Pots"

I am doing my first street market on the 1st December in Bungay, Chaucer Street, Suffolk. Ive always wanted to do an outside stall and show my ceramics outside in the open, so this year I have opted to do one. Cold as it may be Im going to brave it.
Here are some of the new things I will be taking.

My little bird stamps being put to good use. I have stamped them into porcelain clay and glazed these bowls with iron oxide and a clear glaze wash.

My love of fusing glaze and glass continues.
Our finished vino bottles getting put to good use. Smashed up and melted in my pots and bowls.
Im not a "potter Potter" if that makes sense but my pots do seem to be getting larger and, indeed I am making, well, Pots!!
This one is fruit bowl sized.

I love this verdigris glaze, its so rich, this pot is also fruit bowl sized.
Getting Bigger!!

This is a teeny tiny ring bowl made from porcelain with turquoise glaze and a little melted glass.
It measures just 5cm.

I made this bowl with thin strips of stoneware clay wrapped around itself, printed with textile blocks, its wonky but its my favourite one so Im going to keep it.
Also fruit bowl sized with a little shot of cobalt and turquoise glaze and a few glass beads melted into the centre.

See how wonky it is!!
It looks like a child made it.

Lastly, this one sold before it went to market but I will talk about it anyhow.
 I used the verdigris glaze again but this time on different clay body, another little hanging pot.  Threaded with red leather strap which I think goes quite well with the green and brown tones. This one was chunky, the sides were about 1cm thick.

I hope you liked looking at my potter pots!

Chaos, mud, and my church

I am working more now and trying to juggle the school position with working from home, with the added pressure of work being done to my home. (I am currently sharing my workspace with the builders, its full of packaging and builders tools.

My kiln has become a shelf for drills, spanners, hammers you name it and its not really working out, well as far as working in my workshop, so Im back in my "nook" that I made last winter to escape the cold and still get my hands in clay. (see here for that post)

On the upside our lives are changing, our living space will finally be large enough to accommodate our growing family. Currently surrounded by mud, but here is our new space. Im calling it "my Church"

I wish I could say that this will be my new workshop, but sadly no,
 it will be the main living area of my home though. 

Yuk!, this is really a horrible space now, it has become overrun with boxes and bubble wrap, which Im wading through day by day.
Hopefully I will sell loads and it will all be gone by Christmas.

Small areas of my workbench I have some soap stands drying.
I kind of have to see whether these will last with all the foot traffic through here!

Make shift shelves in the corner.
My main shelves are full of tools and other things so Ive had to dry my work out everywhere and anywhere.
Roll on spring!!

Salt and Pepper pots in the making.

I start out like this.
Its black clay and it is messy.

Lined up and drying out.

Lids and lettering

From Hands

to tables....



Taking orders for these via
Not on the High Street

Some New things and shop revamp time!

Well Folksy has been a bit of a wash out this year Ive had no time to do the promotion that is so needed with sites like that and Not on the High street keeps me on the tips of my toes pretty much all year round and with the day job my poor Folksy shop has suffered and well.. died a sorry death.
Folksy have revamped again and this time I really like the layout, the shops look fresh and I feel inclined to give it a bit of attention again, I have to say its got a bit more user friendly than when I last loaded up the product pages, I have listed 4 new things today and it hasn't eaten all my time and was so much easier than before.
Here is what I have put in my shops today:

Ceramic message stones.

http://folksy.com/items/4695292-Ceramic-Message-Stones

I havnt listed this to sell yet, as I have just photographed it to use as my shop avatar, its a little bowl decorated on the underside and melted glass inside, this is one of  the nicer ones that I got from the kiln last week.

This is now my new folksy shop banner,

Just listed in Not on the High street shop, fresh for Christmas.

Japanese silk inspired bowls, I have lots of these, all a little bit different from the next so this one is now on Folksy too.

The Right White Glaze Test Result (making my own Glaze)

Last post I was trying out new recipes for a white stoneware glaze that I could make myself from the raw ingredients that I already have in my workshop. 
I made up four different whites that I thought may suit the firing range I generally fire to (1260c), and the type of stoneware clay I use. 
This was the original post

Here are the test sample results after a 1250.c firing range. As you can see they are quite different with really only two that I would consider using for my work.

Glaze 1 sample I wont make again, its not right for my work and looks gloopy.

Glaze 2 is better it has fitted well onto the clay, it just may need a thicker coat when applied.

Gill's white is good for my work, it fits well onto the clay and its smooth and not too shiny.

Lucie Rie's White was the worst fit for my clay, you can see that it has started to separate away from the clay sample and just looks bobbly and gloopy (not for me) 
sorry Lucie

Here they are again and I fired the same glazes onto broken pieces of greenware (unfired clay) to see how they looked. I think the results were similar to results on bisque ware (fired clay)
Im going to definately make the Gill's White and begin to use this on my work. 
So watch out for new pieces that I will be using this new white glaze on.

and this is how I make and choose new glazes to make!

This is my glaze board. I use all these colours on my work, some are bought glazes and some are made from raw materials. I just keep adding to it when I find something I like to use.