Monthly Archives: November 2024

Summer School Throwing Workshop Jan 6th to 8th – FULL

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The second workshop on the 11th to the 13th of January is also now FULL

I have started a new waiting list for a third workshop for sometime early in February, yet to be determined. I already have 3 names, but need 8 to run the course.

Janine, Len Smith and I will be offering a 3 day throwing workshop over the summer break. Jan 6th to 8th.

We will be teaching throwing techniques for beginners and intermediate level, aimed at making larger forms.

This is NOT a Masterclass for advanced throwers. This workshop is aimed at beginner to intermediate level.

You will need to be able to center clay on the wheel, from there on we will help you make some larger forms, demonstrating exercises to give you confidence to tackle slightly larger projects. Progressing from whatever your current level of skill is.

I will be demonstrating a series of techniques such as top hatting and coil and throw building techniques. 

We will also be demonstrating construction techniques, assembling your thrown sections together to build slightly more complex or larger pieces. We will help you work at your own pace to gain confidence and increase the complexity of your forms, or the height and scale of your pots, as you choose.

The workshop runs for three days from 10 till 4pm on Monday 6th of January to Wednesday 8th of January.

Clay is provided, you will need to bring your throwing tools and lots of batts, a dozen or more. If you own an electrical heat gun, you can bring it along with your tools.

Tea and coffee are provided, please bring something to share for lunch.

Numbers are Limited, as we only have 8 wheels in the studio. First in best dressed.

Cost $375 for three days. Enrollment is confirmed after payment is made.

Bookings <hotnsticky@ozemail.com.au>

ACA Open Studio Weekend

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This weekend is the Australian Ceramics Association, Open Studios.

We will be open from 10 to 4 each day. 

I have been continuing to work over the past few weeks. In particular, I have been doing some ‘kintsugi’ gold repair on a few of my pots with interesting cracks. 

Some 23 carat gold really lifts a slightly damaged pot.

I have also found time to make the weekly loaf of rye bread, and a tray of rock cakes to share with our visitors over the weekend.

Open studio 2024

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We will be open for the next two weekends in November, 16th/17th. for the Southern Highlands Arts Trail then the ACA Open Studios, Ceramics Arts Trail that is happening Nationally on the 4th weekend of the 23rd and 24th of Nov. 

We have plenty of pots in the gallery, floral bowls, and Mixing bowls.

Celadon mugs, Floral mugs, Sgraffito mugs and Sgraffito plates.

I have some unglazed, wood fired Tea bowls that I have been fettling and finishing during the week.

And some wood fired porcelain bowls, glazed with traditional blue celadon. This bowl has some carbon inclusion in the exposed body and is quite subtle and very beautiful in a restrained sort of way.

The cherry crop is in full swing just now and we are able to pick a kilo of cherries every few days. We had bowls full of cherries on offer to our visitors last weekend. 

As we have eaten our fill of fresh cherries, during the week I made home made cherry pie and cherry tarts – because I can!

This is the only week of the year when we can do this. So I make an effort and do it. What else are evenings for?

The recipe optimistically said that it takes 15mins to de-pip a kilo of cherries. It too Janine and I  30 mins. 4 times longer, but worth it. Nothing worse than biting into a delicious looking cherry tart and breaking a tooth on a rouge cherry stone.

I made the recipe with only half the sugar and it is just about right for my taste. I made an almond short crust pastry, quite a bit of fiddling around, but the end result is vaguely sweet, pleasantly soft and slightly crunchy. 

I had to go to the workshop and make a dozen stainless steel tart rings. I found a little piece of stainless off-cut, sliced it up in to strips and spot welded them together into small 60 x 20 mm tart rings. Waste not, want not.

Nothing is perfect, nothing is ever finished, and nothing lasts forever.

Wood kiln firing unpacked and fettled

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I have just unpacked my latest wood kiln firing, just in time for the next 3 Open Studio sales weekends.

There are mixed results, as to be expected, but less seconds than usual. So that’s good.

I’m finally getting the hang of this new kiln and its pre-burnt wood fuel.

I always want to do better, and I keep trying, but I’m happy with what I’ve got. No complaints.

Something about the journey being more important than the destination really..

I tried 10 new clay body recipes. Blending sericite with kaolin based bodies to improve workability. Also some darker bodies.

full moon through clouds

I’ve been experimenting with ash glazes

Ash ‘jun’ glaze, with a light sprinkling of natural ash deposit crystals from the wood firing.

All the pots are now cleaned and fettled, 3 days work in all that, and hopefully nothing to show for it – if I’ve done it well!

Arts Trail – Open Studio 2024

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We will be part of the Southern Highlands Arts Trail – Open Studios on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th weekends in November.

I’m back from my work in Korea and I hit the ground running. All the seeds and seedlings that I planted in late August, just before I left for Korea, were all burnt off in the severe frost event that swept through here in early September. However, all the over-wintering vegetables like peas, broad beans, asparagus and the brassicas are all thriving. So that is what we are eating at every meal these days. 



Because we only eat what we grow, our diet tends to go in long stretches of similar meals, we vary the actual mix for variety but I’ll be glad when the first of the summer crops comes on. That is always zucchini, they are so fast out of the starting blocks, along with radishes. 

However, I know that I’ll be glad to see the last of the ratatouille based summer meals and we can taste that first cauliflower again as the seasons come around. I think that it is a universal human failing to want what you don’t have. No matter how many cabbages I grow, I still hanker for a banana or a pine apple every now and then.

At the moment, I am just loving the smell of the tomato foliage as I brush past it when weeding. The smell of tomato leaves offers such promise of fresh salads and the long hot days of summer to come. 

The more established spring flowers in the flower beds around the pottery were not affected by the frost, and have gone on to bloom there little buds off. Its very cheerful and uplifting to look out the studio window and see a vista of spring blooms.

After the frost. Janine went out and bought some more early seedlings to get a bit of a head start for the summer garden, and now that I’m back, I spent all of my first few days planting seeds, weeding, mulching and mowing to get the place ready for the Open Studios Arts Trail, that is being held on ther last 3 weekwnds of November. But also to guarantee our summer food supply security.IMG_0869.jpegIMG_0871.jpegIMG_0872.jpeg

Janine transplanted some wild self-sown spinach seedlings, but they didn’t all take. I filled in the gaps inbetween with some extra seeds. The vegetable garden is looking good again with all the red poppies in flower now. The bees are going full speed ahead. Their little yellow saddle bags are full and bulgeing with pollen.

We already had a lot of pots made for the open studio sale before I left for Korea, but there was also a lot of bisque ware that I had prepared for a wood kiln firing, but I just couldn’t fit it in before I had to leave. So now that I’m back I have glazed all that work and packed the wood kiln.

13 hours to 1300. I think that I have finally found to best way to burn my pre-burnt and charred dead forest of kiln fuel timber.

The citrus grove is in full bloom and you can smell the fragrance of the citrus flowers from the pottery, if the wind is in the right direction. 

We will be open for three weekends in November, 9th/10th and 16th/17th. for the Southern Highlands Arts Trail then the ACA Open Studios, Ceramics Arts Trail that is happening Nationally on the 4th weekend of the 23rd and 24th of Nov. 

Keep us in mind and call in if you can. We have some lovely work to show you.