Niklas Preukschat - June

Hmmm… I’m feeling a bit lazy so I’ll just feed you with a few notes about the days and some photos. I think it shows quite well how busy the time has been.

31.05./01.06.: Sunbury, south of London. Nic and me are taking a trip to the Sunbury Embroidery Gallery, delivering pots for an exhibition about Nic’s work. The two days we spending on the road must have covered my need for fast food for the rest of the year…

The Sunbury Embroidery Gallery, located in the very nice Walled Gardens

02.06.: Back in Moreton, Nic starts making biggish pots for our next firing in the new kiln. I roll out some slabs for his slab bottles and pictures

03.06.: After two firings with the new kiln we had to admit that another one wouldn’t be possible without rebuilding the wooden frame that holds it all together. Too much of the timber caught fire the last time and we didn't want to risk a collapse of the kiln at 1300°C… So I take down the frame, extend it further out at either side and fill it up with cob. I find it quite fascinating, watching the kiln to grow more and more.

04. – 07.06.: This years’ first show! For Sabine’s demonstration stand at the Contemporary Craft festival in the nearby Bovey Tracey we have to move Nic’s kick wheel.  For the last two weeks we have had Jana, a student from Landshut working with us. She helps Sabine most of the time in Bovey whilst I concentrate on my throwing, making mugs for Adopt a Potter.

Any wrong doing at the Barn Pottery will result in draconic sanctions

08.06.: more insulation work at the kiln + getting wood sawn and split

09.06.: finishing the work at the kiln

10.06.: start packing the kiln

'Who emptied the bottle?!'

11.06.: finish packing the kiln + cleaning the 50 beaker I made for an order

12.06.: bricking up (bad weather doesn’t let us do any more)

13.06.:  start firing

14.06.: firing

15.06.: firing

16.06.: finishing the firing + cleaning kiln shelves for Sabine’s kiln

 

fotogenic at any time

17.06.: packing Sabine’s kiln (in just one day!)

18.06.: start firing Sabine’s kiln, Nic and me are picking up a wheel from the other side of the moor that a 

friend of Nic’s gave to us + cleaning pots

19.06.: finishing the firing, it was the first time firing that kiln without pyrometer. Looking forward to the results

21.06.: kiln opening of Nic’s firing (nice pots! Different to the last firings, the stack was much looser packed 

because of the big pots)

22.06.: Nic and me building and setting up his display for Rufford, Sabine hers + cleaning pots of the last firing + Sabine’s kiln opening

three jobs at once: building the display, cleaning pots and arraning them

23.06.: it’s getting dirty! Burning and waxing logs for Nic’s display

hot

24.06.: packing the van

25.06.: And we’re off to ‘Earth and Fire’ in Rufford, Nottinghamshire! We arrived with five hours delay at late night due to our hired van that broke down, then a sick dog and… who hasn’t heard the story!?

26.06.: setting up the stands in the morning just before the show opens and then for the rest of the day: pots, pots, conversations, pots, looking after the stands, shopping pots!

hurry!

27.06.: the same again

28.06.: and again (!) + taking everything down, loading the van and driving back home

29.06.: unloading van + setting up Nic’s display + waxing some more logs

30.06.: packing van, a long long day that was

31.07.: Off to Hatfield! That trip goes quite smoothly compared to Rufford. 35°C it is. Building up the yurt 

and the shelter (camping deluxe) + dumping the show stuff at the marquees and the day’s job is done

01.07.: Setting up Nic’s and Sabine’s displays 

hihi

02.07.: Start of ‘Art in Clay’, Adopt a Potter has got a stand for a tombola. My duty is to collect donated pots from the exhibitors. Thank you very much for all the great donations and conversations!

03.07.: Tombola, Tombola! One ticket for 2 Pounds, 3 for just a fiver! You're having a go with it?

 

Apply for adoption now and get a fully house trained potter!

04.07.: last day of Hatfield, Nic wins the Peers award for best stand! For the third time! And nobody else has won it more than once! And he won it three times! Did you know that?! ;) Then its all over, taking down the stands and start packing the van

Sunday - the end is near

Peers Award winner - for the third time

05.07.: The day says hello at 5 am, taking down the yurt and shelter, packing the van. 7.30 am: I’ve missed your traffic jams, M25!

the party is over

May 
     This month has been busy in many ways. The first weekend I spent on the Isles of Scilly rowing in the world Pilot Gig Rowing Championships! Which was extremely hard, rowing in 4 races over 2 days in bad weather conditions.

This is us in the far, lighter blue boat.
Over taking the other boat!
There were 151 boats from all around the world taking part, so it was amazing.








Then I came back to St Ives, and back to work at the Leach! We have been working on a new porcelain range, which I have been helping to make. Kat and Roelof worked on the shapes and designs, then me and Kat have been throwing the pieces. I have done the milk jugs, creamers, small mugs and mugs. I has been good for my throwing, having to throw really thin and attaching handles to porcelain.

When I threw the mugs for the SeaSalt order they seemed a lot easier, after throwing the porcelain mugs. We also have a SeaSalt order this month, along with other orders.


I have also continued to do a lot of work on my own pieces. I don't have long until Hatfield now, so I have been trying to fire pieces that I want to take with me.  These are a couple of the pieces,  

   

Everybody  in the studio has been really helpful, looking at my work and giving me feedback and advice on what I need to improve or how to change the glaze slightly.  At the moment I am mostly focusing on lidded pots and Platters. 

We have also had a resident potter this month. Barry Krzyswicki from Denver. 

He stayed in the house with us, so we got to know him and he gave me lots of advice and shared his experiences with me. He also teaches in America, so Barry has lots of useful tips and can recognise mistakes or aspects that need improvement. 

Niklas Preukschat - May

muh?

So… after the Germans got those incredible results out oft the new kiln we didn't have to wait long until new plans to fire it appeared in our heads. But despite the results, the kiln didn’t quite fit to our expectations. The previous firebox design made it a bit of a task not to knock pots over and it was also a bit too small to reveal its full performance.

For the second firing we decided to go back to the roots, meaning for me to take down the steps, to rebuild the front wall and casting a sidestoke hole into the firebox as well as to brick up the chimney by a third of its height. Knocking bricks out of an already built arch was the probably most dodgiest part of that job…

first brick out

A new window brings light into that gloominess

face-lifting

If anybody is planning a banquet - we can supply the beaker. At least

Somewhere inbeteween that work, Nic and Sabine did let me having a go with throwing beaker for an order that came in. It was quite satisfying pushing my boundaries in throwing and at the end I managed to get some 25 beakers per hour done!

By mid of the month we got to the point of glazing the pots but the bucket for bone ash – ingredient of one of our glazes – had the guts to show us it was empty! Without time to order more, Nic headed off towards the butcher to get some freshly chopped bones. The dogs looked quite confused when they saw us burning those tasty, meaty bits of bones…

yummy +

stinky

= calcined bones

When it then came to packing the kiln, Nic and me wondered, how the Germans managed to sit in there all day long…

 

designed by Nic for tiny german fairys, not for Nic

The firing then went exceptionally well and there were even a few worries whether it went all a bit too well?

easy-peasy

When that was finished we spent a few days in getting wood sawn and splitted and Sabine had a major firing for this years’ shows in Bovey Tracey, Rufford and Hatfield.

And what’s coming next?

It is now all getting very fast paced with Nic having an exhibition in London at the beginning of june, Sabines stand at the Art and Craft fair in Bovey Tracey and two more firings before we head off towards the ‘Earth and fire’ fair in Rufford at the end of June following 'Art in Clay' in Hatfield a weekend later.

And we got some wood delivered...

the chainsaw is running hot

April

April was a rare month where we didn't have a SeaSalt order to fill, so we spent the month working on some other orders and also some stock for the shop here at the Leach.
This meant that I got to throw all kinds of different shapes, so I really enjoyed the change of pace.
We had a large order of bowls, so I spent a lot of time making bowls of all sizes and nesting pouring  bowls. We make these in sets of 3 gradually getting smaller, so it is trick making sure the spout also gets smaller, in proportion to the body of the bowl.

 We try hard to not make the bowls too round, or they can look as if they have slumped, so the form is more straight then curved.

These are my finished nesting bowls in the shop
at the Leach. It is nice to see the pots on display after they are finished, rather than shipping them all off!



I also spent time working through the different sizes of jug, from creamer to medium jug. I enjoy making the jugs as there are many different things to think about, including spout, handle etc and how they all work together.

This image shows a small jug finished, then below you can see the handle pulling day, with all of the small jugs freshly handled.







At the beginning of the month we all helped with the beginning of our shard path. We have a shard pile for pieces that have faults or glaze tests etc, which we have begun smoothing down and we will eventually set them in to paving slabs to make a path to Beagle Cross ,the education studio.



I think we all enjoyed the process of preparing the
shards!

Tamsin - April to May

It's all still busy in the Helen Beard studio! April was full to the brim with preparations for Helen's exhibition at Ceramic Art London, which was a wonderful success

We've also been working on a test collection for a new slip-cast range, experimenting with transfer decoration which has been a nerve-wracking experience  - and it's not over yet! But the early stages have gone well.

Alongside Helen's preparations I've been preparing more of my work to sell at our open studios which was last weekend. I've been introducing a few new shapes including bottles and shallow sauce dishes to my range, which all went down quite well.

Now my preparations begin for Ceramic Art York and Ceramics in the City (which I heard a couple of weeks ago that I got into!). I've just written out a list of things to make which didn't sound too daunting when Helen and I were discussing it, but seeing it all laid out makes me feel a bit nervous!! Better get started...

Simona April

Tythegston Pottery - April

My congratulation to Niklas, I have really enjoyed reading your blog for April. You looked very busy, busy... Well, I guess a lot of fun as well hard work!!!

I have done my first Craft Fair at Margam Park. Amazing place to be.

I don't have much photos to show as I forgot to take my camera in the studio with me. Being busy with the usual staff, firing, making, pugging, cleaning ...
I have been making pots for Adopt a Potter!!!! Will show them once they are ready.

I have managed to capture April impressions from my room!!!

Niklas Preukschat - April

There was so much going on in April that I don't know how to bring it all into that post... I'll try to give you some brief impressions of what happened.
For the first couple of weeks the germans carried on with making and finishing their pots as well as building the barrel-arched kiln. Nic and me helped them out whenever we were short on time...

bricking up the arch

putting another layer of bricks on top of it

then a layer of fibre blanket and chicken wire

topped off with a few layers of clamming

Nic and me bricking up the front wall and flue

done

Then packing both kilns...

 ...and firing them

The kiln building project was such an incredible experience! I think it was a perfect first-time experience for that it showed, with what simple materials a kiln can be build. The whole pallett with fire bricks I collected over the last months got used but we also reused loads of scrap materials like broken firebricks and bits and pieces of fibre blankets. 



After the job was done we took the Germans out for a sightseeing tour through North Devon, having a stop at Svend Bayers' workshop and then heading further north towards the sea.

kiln building and wood-stacking at its best

But with having the firings finished it didn't mean that the pressure was off - it was quite the contrary!
There was still a major exhibition of the 'Gnarly Dudes' ought to be held at ours the weekend after.

The Gnarly Dudes

For those who don't know who the Dudes are:
They are a group of five british woodfire potters - John Fellows, Chuck Schwartz, Charles Bound, Svend Bayer and Nic Collins - who first came up in the mid/late 90s' with two exhibitions which showed the countries' probably most defining woodfired ceramic of that time.
Here's a video of the '99 exhibition:

 

So, 16 years later they all came together for one last big bang which gave us only a few days to get prepared! A big cleaning up was needed with unnumerable bundles of wood to be stacked, the workshop had to be transformed into a proper exhibition showroom, there was an outdoor display to be set up, and so on... we were very fortunate having six fairies from Germany buzzing around...
The exhibition itself then was absolutely stunning! It was a great input for me talking to the other potters about their way of firing, their kilns and work and to see that variety of woodfiring.
Here's an impression of the indoor part of the exhibition:

Somewhere between the preparation we managed to squeeze the opening of the new kiln in, Sabines kiln we opened earlier on.

The firing itself was, as expected, a bit of a struggle due to the wet kiln which sucked a lot of energy to dry out but the results were exceptional!

the new porcelain body: nuka glazed, plain and celadon glazed

 

The end of the exhibition also marked the end of the four-weeks course with the Germans and after having them send away it was very strange to rediscover the peace- and quietness our place can offer! Since then we took down the display, splitted wood for the next firing in three weeks time, shifted 2,5 tons of clay around and picked up a few new kiln shelves near London which should last for the next ten years or so...

and my new throwing project after bottles and vases is making mugs for the Adopt a Potter stands at the ceramic fairs in Rufford and Hattfield.

I love the look of that...

... and that!

Hm. I think that's it.