Pottery

I returned to pottery this afternoon.  
I returned to moulding & creativity.
I  am going to a different potter to also meet new people, widen my horizons, speak English as well as French.  It is a dual challenge for me: language and art!  It will be similar but different to the informal, irregular pottery course I did between about 2006 and 2012, maybe 2014. I forget.  The course is every Thursday unless cancelled.  He is English.  I like his work plus he has a professional reputation as a potter in UK.  The gardens are huge and  there is a positive atmosphere.  Music sounded a varied selection which was vetoed if the choice was not approved!
I'd been to the artists' open day last Sunday but only visited one of the many and whilst there thought, "Oh I'd like to do this again!"

He remembered that I'd said I would like to do coil work.
Did I?
I am open to being guided to do any learning task that I'm set. 
What did I wish to make?
Oh, maybe something for the garden. Could it be frost proof? .. it doesn't have to be.
I hear myself speak.
I liked your spear heads on iron rods so thought of making fish shapes instead.
However, I sense he would like me to do something more challenging.
I am taken just outside to the garden where my eye perceives a tall,  fat, conical object with holes in it, hiding in a prickly-leaved shrub.
THAT! 
It's eccentric! Maybe a smaller version.
This could be expensive me thinks! 
Inside I'm shown how to use an extruder to make coils. 
Oh... I'm glad I don't have to roll them!
No... here are the plaques that give you the different widths of coil size.
See... F used this one for the bowl shape ... and for the pot outside, this one was used.
I chose one in-between. 
Clay is inserted into a long, vertical, rectangular container fixed to the table top.  Pull the lever down as if drawing a pint of beer.  Hey presto, catch the coils before they drop to the ground.  
Take a coil and follow one of the chosen circular contours on a board.
Follow the technique for adding coils. 
Move the clay with tools or fingers on the outside and inside so that the coil ridges disappear into a smooth wall on the inside and outside, which at the same time is forming a cone shape. That is, each layer of coil reduces the circumference. 
The potter came from time to time to check. 
It was neither easy or difficult but I had to use less slip and ensure I was not making too much of a cone at this stage.  Ah... I think it is being made in three parts!  At one time I took some layered coils apart when I realized the cone was not being formed, and then found it was being too conical! Whoops.
 Quite a lot to consider.
Quite a lot of sensory touch and sight.
Quite a lot of Mother Earth at my fingertips.
Two hours of emptying my head unknowingly, absorbingly, completely in a different environment, learning as one is aware of heavy stoneware clay being transformed by touch.
Nice.  

Retro Liberty: Fast forward!

I am very proud to own a Susan Collier and Sarah Campbell design from 1972.  I was poor and had just started or was about to start teaching.  My then husband worked in South Kensington making exotic items with silver, other metals, semi-precious stones, ivory, shells, (all banned now!) for a man with a million.  We were always well entertained at restaurants, eating little pigeons, pheasant breasts all nouveau cuisine!  He was so lovely : J.Anthony Redmile. Breathe deeply! Sigh for such missed opportunities!
Apart from delving into shops such as Biba and all the rest whilst I floated in a cloud of patchouli, long long hair, mini-dresses, crepe culottes, Indian sari, flower-power attire (not all at the same time)  I often was transported in delight in Liberty.  I JUST HAD to have this 'Bauhaus' design roller printed onto thick cotton, before unknowingly I became destitute and further impoverished.  It's a pity I didn't purchase enough to make the third repeat!
I AM SO EXCITED... whilst looking for bird wallpaper and fabric and finding the design I WANT.. I WANT .. I WANT .. (it's fabric only, though I haven't decided in what measure and what I would do with it, if I could ever locate it)  the lovely internet led me to a course... and CAN I BELIEVE THAT later this year, I shall be participating in  two day textile course with THE lovely Sarah Campbell!!! Sadly her sister died in 2011.
It's been a while since yearning to do something with textiles. I have no idea what I shall achieve. 

Egyptian Birds 1972

Simple Purl to start with

I found the knitting needles and crochet hooks some time ago. Now,  I have really started .... hm... a few errors as the needle splits the wool...it was unraveled but getting the loops back onto the needle was tricky!!!  I discovered the skein / ball of 100% wool has weak places where one ply has broken!!! How annoying. I suppose this is why it was once in a sale at a famous French clothing shop!  I am hoping it will be 'a square'! Just purl. The idea is to make other 'squares' with a different stitch / pattern.. for a challenge and hands to be busy!
Watching The Fall in short sections, whilst knitting prevents nail biting whilst drinking a glass or two... but I need bi-focals.  I really don't like them, so am peering atop the reading / knitting spectacles!
There exists the phenomena of 'knitting finger' where the left-hand forefinger pushes the needle back, after the yarn has wrapped and looped through the stitch on the L.H. needle.  Hmmm ...need to tape my finger.  I know one can purchase finger protectors!