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Workshop ready and running…. at last….

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At last, after three / four months of trying to balance:

  • my freelance work as a freelance environmental educator – working with local authorities and schools (trading as Far-Side:learning – no web-address yet)
  • starting the Masters at Bath Spa
  • building new sheds and renovating / redecorating / kitting-out the workshop….

…..this space is ready and running. Kitted out with a powerful but quiet Shimpo wheel, Rhode electric kiln (one of their energy efficient Eco-top kilns) – both sourced through the incredibly helpful and enthusiastic Bath Potters Supplies and with some re-used / recycled shelving (from the local Worcester Resource Exchange) and work surfaces from reclaimed bits of plywood, it’s beginning to work well. However, the big challenge still exists around my commitment to explore wood-firing and there are conversations to be had with some local workshop / unit / landowners operating outside the smoke free limits of Worcester city. My only defence in using an electric kiln, beyond the efficiency of Rhode kilns is that we source a lll of our gas and electricity through Good Energy, which means that the energy I am using can be linked to renewable, rather than fossil fuel generated electricity.

There’s no running water – buckets sufficing and encouraging very careful use of this resource.

Happy New Year bonfire firing….

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Saw in the New Year last night with a bonfire and firing a few small pots made by us all… We have a fair bit of lavender in the garden and we store some of it to burn on New Year’s Eve. The seeds and stalks give off a beautiful, powerful smell and the resins burn with a blue / orange flame, the stems twisting and glowing briefly before turning to ash… The pots made were an experiment, I haven’t bonfire fired for twenty years. We used craft crank, which although very resistant to thermal shock, meaning our pots all survived the firing, hasn’t given the best visual results. The clay doesn’t burnish well and the colour of the fired clay is buff / black, rather than the orange / black you can get with terracotta or the clays I used to use from Devil’s Water in Northumberland or other river clays.

Bonfire firing – New Year’s Eve 2015
Pots nestled in ashes on rainy New Year morning
One for each of us…..

Autumn leaves:

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This has been a beautiful autumn, with the wet spring, long warm summer and late arrival of gales and storms allowing the colours to form and hold…. The Tulip Tree that I pass on my Tuesday walks to and from Sion Hill Campus from Bath-Spa Train Station has provided me with moments of wonder as the season turns. Given that my mind is so full of thoughts and the pressures of trying to maintain a freelance business, build and fit-out a new workshop, re-start my ceramic practice and build ideas as part of our Research Methodologies module, these moments of wonder are vital re-connections with the natural world that stop me in my tracks….

Workshop developments:

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In order to start working in ceramics again (after a 9 year break), for my part-time MA, I have had to develop a workshop. This has been a challenging and of course, vital project, given that for me, it is essential that my work and practice considers sustainability as a central theme. Six years ago I designed a new workshop space to fit in our garden which we built with a local builder, Jim Wallace, during a snowy winter (see picture). Given my interest and commitment to sustainability and my work on this theme at the time (as Learning for Sustainability Officer with Worcestershire County Council), we decided to experiment with lime-hemp wall construction and using sustainably sourced, FSC grade or local timber for the frame and the cedar shingles on the roof. Lime-hemp walls provide excellent thermal insulation.

However, the “workshop” had become, in-line with many family outdoor spaces, a dumping ground for bicycles, garden tools, camping equipment etc. As a result, a second shed needed to be constructed, this time entirely on my own and following some of the same design priorities as the previous build. This time, there was no need for insulation, but it is entirely made from local timber from Mick Goodman’s woodland and timber yard at Ockeridge, Worcestershire, less than 10 miles from here.

All photographs – RB

Building the new shed to free up the workshop – 2013.
Building the workshop back in 2007.
Bags of hemp and lime ready for wall construction
Timber frame construction with shuttering to hold / mould lime-hemp fill.