Festive firing

No post for a while, no Caribbean holiday, just long cold hours in the workshop trying to prevent my feet freezing to the floor. I am also researching a couple of new places to study + went to Worcester University last week to discuss the geology of the Malvern Hills and begin the long process of getting permissions to collect samples. It is a fascinating area with the oldest rocks in England (at a cool 800-600 million years old)plus a huge variety of other sedimentary rocks.

This image shows two of the shale samples I obtained from the geology department fired in reduction to 1270C. Just goes to show that it's not only the clays of the East or the Triassic mudstones of the Midlands that melt at stoneware. The one on the left is a Silurian era red mudstone and the other a grey Carboniferous mudstone. Other than that it's making and remaking for the next wood firing.

It's always a long process making new forms. I liked the later pieces I made so much more than the precursors, so I reconstituted them and carried on making. Time for one more firing before christmas.