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This is part of my work for university and it's kinda hard to explain without the whole lot of stuff online. Tis all in the sketchbook and my blogging is most behind. These are texture samples that are going to be impressed into clay so I figured I might as well post them before they get covered in dusty crap just so I know what they looked like.

Our small contribution to BCB 2013

We visited Middleport Pottery as part of the Burslem weekend for the British Ceramics Biennial. The area in which Middleport Pottery is located is a bit...grim so when we stepped inside it was a bit like falling down the rabbit hole, which was completely awesome. 

We entered a room with three tables with clay monstrosities describing the pits where the fuel for the factories was fug up, the pottery factories which once made the city prosperous and the canal side along which the ceramics were distributed to Manchester, and from there, the rest of the world. 

There seemed to be rather a lot of cats there too :)

This is mine and Patrick's small contribution, which I'm rather chuffed with.

We helped contribute towards the canal-side, which was a wonderful experience. Everything was made by people walking in, picking up clay and morphing the whole story into existence. It was great to be able to just pick up the soft clay and work directly with the materials without having to sketch anything first.

The results look rather cutesy, like the things I doodle.

BCB 2013

Staffordshire Open Art Exhibition 2013

Memories by Mandy Billington, clay and mixed media

Not Another Soul- Coniston by Tracy Barlow, etching

Sketch Snapshots of Stafford by Keri Jayne, pen and ink

Seed Heads in Autumn by Rebecca Doyle, mixed media

Joyous days I have a goddamn phone! hooray! Above are photos taken (by my handy new 2 mega pixel phone camera) from the 2013 Staffordshire Open Art Exhibition at Shire Hall Gallery in Stafford. Exhibition is open til 14th July 2013.

Currently the only way I can get photos off said phone is by posting them on Facebook, so I had to spam folks with fuzzy mobile pictures, which I feel slightly guilty of. Speaking of which, I made a handy little failbook page for this happy little blog which whoever's interested or too polite to refuse my invitation is welcome to like. Who knows, maybe I can trick somebody into reading this shit on a regular basis.

Material-experimentin' time! I am pretty unashamedly chuffed with this first maquette, it's just like how I imagined it would be. Needs time to dry and then get fried to death in my grandad's old kiln. All the parts where I have cut through would be where the comic panels will be. I'm so excited ^_^

These are my test tiles waiting to be fired either tomorrow or the day after. Unfortunately at the moment I can only get my hands on pre-mixed glazes and grandad also left me a load that all unfortunately contain lead (meaning they would be totally redundant on bowls for example) Decided to test a few anyways and then the two on the far right are some spectrum glazes my dad bought me for christmas, and I've recorded them all in a handy little database on my laptop so I can keep all my test information in one place.

A bit concerned about trying to create a firing schedule for a kiln that has no temperature cutoff aside from the plug but I suppose all I can really do is try to mimic one to the best of my ability and just resign myself to the fact that no two firings will be exactly the same.

Bowl Update

Haven't updated what I've been doing with my bowls for a while so here goes:

• all of the glazes my grandfather left me are lead-based and can't be used in contact with food or children's toys according to new legislation, so I need to invest in new glazes once my money comes in. because nobody will want a bowl that you can't put food in
• am still planning to run a few tests on them anyway to get me used to using my grandfather's crazy kiln
• have designed a digital database on MSaccess where I can keep all records of any test tiles I ever decide to make in one place that is easily searchable
• Have bought myself a new underglaze pencil which should be handy when it comes to further test-tiling and decorating if I get myself a clear glaze to seal it in

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures to share yet, but to those interested at all, watch this space.

"There's a city beneath our streets"

Managed to get a chance to fire some old maquettes I did in uni based on sewers and underground tunnels that get forgotten about.  I guess it's not really worth much now, but it's nice to think that there isn't another one of these anywhere in the world, but seeing the potential in them that I never realised is quite sad in a way.

At least they look super close to the original designs (top right corner there). I can't remember what the yellow is but it's a shame the brown stuff didn't flux properly, but that could just be down to my crazy kiln and its loath for functioning normally. It's not really very professional of me to say that I mixed some unquantified measurement of borax frit and a random something from one of the big boxes in the glaze room.

Note to self: create a digital library of test tiles for easier future reference.

Reasons why my firing did not go as planned

1. I assumed that the temperature increase on the dial was linear and forgot that heat increase from a low temperature will use a lot less power than heat increase from a higher temperature, as shown in the hastily drawn diagram above.
2. I forgot to test to see if the temperature readout was actually recording the right temperature. In theory, it could have been wrong.
3. The cutoff/soak switch does not work at all what-so-ever and the kiln reached 1365°C before I realised. The only way to restrict temperature is to adjust power input using the dial.
4. 6% on the dial does not equal 6% of the power needed to reach 1030°C (I was hoping for about 65°C) it actually came closer to 348°C so it needs a MUCH LOWER power input to warm the kiln up and get rid of moisture.
5. I should also never put it on 100% ever again, it increased the temperature from roughly 580°C to 1365°C in the space of 20 minutes.

Fortunately the slip I used was made of stronger stuff than I realised and didn't melt all over the kiln despite being low-firing. I suspect that the clay might be too fused to glaze, but I'm going to try it anyway because it can't hurt. No houses or garages were burnt in the making of this bowl. Going to attempt test tiles next.

First Firing

My grandfather's kiln is now up and loaded and ready for the first test firing tomorrow. It was built in 1987 by Potterycrafts, and I have no idea if it still works properly. I'm excited because it could be the start of something amazing. I'm scared that I'm going to burn the garage down.

It only fires to one temperature (about 1020°C) and the temperature is controlled by a dial that reads 0-100 (percentage of power input).

First firing schedule is going to be: 

• around a minimum of 6 hours at 6%

• 2 hours increasing to 24%

• 2 hours increasing to 54%

• as long as it takes to reach peak temperature (100% cut-off)

Should hopefully be your bog-standard bisque firing with any luck. See how it goes.