1. I take a few bowls I’ve thrown at home into the studio for firing in the kiln. People I admire, skilled ceramists, call them beautiful.
1b. I had a bit of a revelation yesterday – that my overwhelming priority at the studio should be on throwing, and I should only play with other stuff it’ll inform decorating my thrown pieces – so the first thing I do today is wedge up eight little balls of clay. I throw bowls and cylinders, then experiment with collaring in to make little domed vessels. I’m happy with the results.
1c. I blob on the coloured slip then drop the tile – just a couple of inches but it is enough for the blob to instantly slump into a perfect flat circle. I laugh with glee at the swiftness of the transformation.
1d. My prehistoric handprints lose some of their colour in the firing but the result is just how I imagined it six months ago. (And what fitting timing!)
2. The woods are suddenly illuminated with a bright white light: two guys on mountain bikes on the path behind me.
3. Lily curled up, wrapped in the blanket.
4. I ply together my self-striping sample: I have to remove 50cm of the middle colour on one of the singles but aside from that, they match up perfectly. Usually I have a good few metres more of one thread than the other but the ends of these are just centimetres apart.
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