Trees at the Museum

sun through a nicely laid hedge
A sheltered corner in the sun
Hazel hedging
Dreams!
Beeches
The sun is bringing the smell of Spring out
Kennixton Farmhouse from Gower, with the barn being reconstructed. I would love a home like this!
The exhibition in Oriel1/Gallery1
At present the first part of the gallery contains exhibits and videos and slides about Italians in Wales, until May. Last year there were Indian Potters building statues in clay of gods and goddesses for a festival, held in Cardiff afterwards. Different nationalities that have moved here and helped to make Wales what she is today take turns here.
The remainder of the gallery is about heritage, culture, religion and education in Wales

Test firing results

I don't think that I will be firing THAT fast again!! All the clay pads that held the cones had disintegrated.
However that is cone 06 on the left, so the two pyrometers (one through a hole above the spyhole where these cones were, one down through the middle of the kiln roof) that read 1000 degrees C weren't far out
top
spyhole level
going down
bottom shelf and bagwall ends
Cone Corpses!!

I need to find my old kiln logs from the late 70s and 80s. I'm sure I did bisque firings at 900 degrees or so.
There has been discussion on the Clayart forum lately as to the merits or otherwise of bisque firings varying from cone 05 to 07.

Perhaps all the arguments are why I ended up raw glazing my slipware back then!! I would like to do so again, but I've heard that it isn't possible with a white earthenware body. Now that I'm using porcelain at times, and a white stoneware body, the thought of having red clay as well in a small workshop brings nightmares!!

All I need now is a white stoneware body that will withstand the rigours of a salt firing as well as doing fine in 'ordinary' stoneware firings!! I know, asking the Earth!!

Tintern Walk

Old bridge over the River Wye at Tintern, looking South
Seat at the Abbey Mill


Tintern Abbey. Built for the Cistercian Order of Monks- Y Brodyr Gwynion/The White Brothers, so called because of their habits made of unbleached woven sheeps' wool


Looking down the Wye again from the bank- you can see the mud level is right up to...and over...the flood plain
going back over
the bridge

Babayigar???!!

Tree House in the Spiteful.

The Spiteful is so named because one industrialist didn't want the other to build a rival railway line...so he built a short terrace of houses in the way!!

kiln firing!!

At long last!!!!
I packed the kiln with shelves and bits of HTI brick as it hasn't been fired for about six years.

This was justified as it steamed and dripped a bit to start with!!

I was grateful to be nannied through the process by Mel Brown , so very many thanks go to her for nudging me forwards.
We logged everything, and got it up to 1000 Centigrade in under two and a half hours!! This is some kiln!!
Obviously I wont be firing a bisque or a once-fire so fast.

Looking forward to unpacking it and mapping all the cones we put in to check for hot/cold spots.
This will have to wait until after tomorrow's Farmers' Mart.

Even more good news, I have been accepted for a stall at Abergavenny's monthly Craft Market on the second Saturday of every month....starting this month!!

Backing up your blog!!

With many thanks to www.backcountrynotes.com

"Amid complaints that things are disappearing from Facebook -- of course they are; Facebook is again in the process of "improving" the site -- there have been admissions that some of you-all don't back up your blogs. Mercy forfend! Back up NOW and regularly thereafter!

I don't know the procedure for all blogs, but here are a couple I do know, and the other services probably have something similar:

BLOGGER: Go to Settings/basic, blog tools and click on “export blog” then click on “download blog” button.

WORDPRESS: Go to Tools (lefthand column in dashboard), click on “export” then click on “download export file” button.

Right now -- backup yer dern blog!"

homecoming (update)

For all the apologies, and it was great to hear them, I have to go back to square one and fill in ALL the forms again, government and council.

About £500 will be nice when it arrives....