journal for june...

Studio time is a must right now even in the cold and damp of winter a tiny bar heater keeps me cozy out there! One day soon my stove will be hooked up with its chimney and so nice it will be to spend hours and hours outside...

 Saturday I dared put my hands in the chilly water to begin the Tagine throwing ... my first effort the other day had been all new testing ground and the initial atempt wound up on my plaster bat on the floor, too much stress and not enough clay... so this wkd I thought make some changes chief!! and the day was more successful...

 So as it stands the first couple are 8lbs of clay per base and 8lbs per top made from my recycled body, a combination of clayworks SWE, some terracotta, some LGH and some local dirt too!! added to one large polystyrene container plus 2litres of fine grog and topped up with water to make a fine sturry stir for a couple of weeks and when sloppy scooped out onto the plaster bat...

 The lids have a little Doug Fitch influence the top narrow neck is thrown seperately and added. Atop this a small bowl is added to finish off the neck of the lid.... plus another video inspired addition by Cynthia Bringle! i think she made some goblets with a tiny bowl insert ...a brilliant idea so I thought i'd give that one a try too... The bases are 34cm wide at wet stage rim to rim and I'm still not sure how much they hold ?? will have to wait until the firing to know exactly....anyhoo a couple of firings in the pipeline right now and some pics to go on with from the market yesterday and the Tangines in progress...