This time next week I’ll be in London, preparing to take myself off to Cambridge on Saturday. That little expedition has been my impetus for work for the last few weeks. I told the Raiders that I needed to concentrate on getting a big batch of jugbirds completed before making any more slab plates for them to paint.

Just this week I unloaded the glaze firing of my Fall work and I have a good flock of birds, some plates of my own, sugar or jam pots, yunomis, a splendid plate of Pierre Coupey’s and assorted grandson creations.

Pierre drove over here today and picked up his large round plate as well as two little coupes from the last Raid firing. The big one had had to wait because it hadn’t been bisque-fired. Pierre worked on a leather-hard surface, painting slips, carving into them, applying paper resist and then black slip. We didn’t know until after the glaze firing how the original coloured slips would look. I think he’s pleased with the result and now wants to follow up with a series! The plate is a wall-piece, and is not intended for serving food. The surface is rough and the layering of slips, paper, more slips and later, glaze, does leave some random surprises.

I’ll post photos of all the new jugbirds in a follow-up blog but in this one I’d like to show three or four photos taken during the fabrication of them.

There’s a batch of freshly thrown jugbird bodies, then I show them with inserted spouts and handles, and some with their eyes, which have been dipped in a preliminary slip.

The next photo shows a group which have been painted with slips, underglazes and terra sigillata and are drying. They are then bisque-fired before I wax the feet and dip them in clear glaze for their second firing. You can see the bright colours after that in the top photo (or in my next blog).

When Pierre was experimenting here with paper resist I began to try that out too. Some colour combinations are better than others so I have ideas to pursue in November.

Here is a jolly mug painted with vertical shapes. I like the terra sigged handle’s satin feel in contrast to the super shiny glazed body of the mug. Perhaps I’ll ‘share’ the finished mug on Instagram for Mugshot Monday next week.

Meanwhile I have cleaned the red earthenware out of my wheel and need to fish out my mixed Plainsman H550 and H570 to begin making some pieces for a group soda firing at Shadbolt Centre in late November. I do enjoy switching from one clay process to a completely different one a couple of times a year. So look for the satisfying blue, grey and red-browns and some orange peel from the soda firing in a couple of months.

Tomorrow it’s time to wrap pots and pack them in a ‘carry-on’ box.