Boo Vake Mini exhibition

Pant, pant... Been rushing around, not writing this blog, but getting things through the kiln for the Ceri White mini exhibition at Boo Vake, creating lots of new work for that and Potfest, continuing with commisions and finishing orders and networking furiously online. 
Pause for breath.... anyway... here is the invite for the first thing:

Some goodies out of the kiln:

And it's been all badges, badges, badges, ladies with demi-waves and ~ oooh, y'know - stuff that flows from my fevered brain!

Must dash...

Byeeeeeeeeee

Kiln Repairing Workshop Happenings...

Is it Sunday night already???????? *weeps* Been a busy week in the CWS Empire.
The result of which is this...

Nightmare!!!  I can't help it... I have Potfest in a few weeks!  Not to mention a number of orders and commisions...

Actually let's ignore that and pretend everything's fine, la la la... 
So, I did a very good thing this week, production-wise:  I changed my kiln elements after *cough* a number of years.  Seriously, I could have fired tiles quicker just holding a match to them.  First thing to do when your pristine and shiny new elements arrive (and after unplugging the thing) is remove the back of the kiln...

Er, er... ............            No, it looks bad but let me tell you I have tackled bigger kiln electrics that look prehistoric and a lot more crispy than this.   Just get all the right bits to touch each other and not anything else and yer laughin'. 
*looks around for the fire-blanket*
So this is where the elements terminate and hook up to the fizzy leckie.  On the other side I was yanking out this:

Man those poor babies are well past retirement!  (They are gonna look so good on the Lady-Robot costume I'm thinking of for a 2069 space party I'm attending soon though!  I might wear them in my hair!) 

 Anyway, after much swearing, cutting my hands to ribbons and breathing lethal quantities of kiln fibre, (How many slivers of fibre does it take to do perminant damage, Ceri?  Oh, I dunno... ONE?!!!), my little kiln looked like this:

Deep joy and much rejoicing!  And yes it works!  If only I could rejuvinate my own bits and bobs with so little effort.          

Pauses for reflection....

Anyway, in anticipation of cuteness being a good thing for sales at Potfest, I've done some wee face badges and magnets - these are they in the raw:

And these are they biscuit fired:

Actually some of these, when finished and gloriously coloured, will debut at the mini Ceri at Boo Vake exhibition 20th-26th May (is that right, Arlene???) 

So that's a bit of a catch-up... just to show that when I'm not getting my paws dirty with mud, I'm just getting them dirtier with... other stuff.

The fireplace continued... and more

Well... I've been sizing and printing off the individual patterns for each tile in this masterpiece... at the moment I'm doing the tiles randomly as the pattern runs through them... bit tricky as the fired version is 7% smaller than its raw counterpart, thus:

It's not a huge difference but I want each tile to join up as seamlessly as possible. Of course, the sensible thing to do would be to work on them all at the same stage and I've finally cottoned on to this amazing concept!

It takes up more room, is all...
If you look closely you can see the traced pattern on the raw tile.

As well as this, I'm working on various orders and new work for Potfest Scotland which has moved from Perth to Stirling this year.  Put it in your diary mmm'kay... May 29th to 31st.  Got that?
So not panicking about that at all.. uh uh... no way... it's gonna be aaaaaaall riiiiiight. Loads of time! *grabs paper bag and breaths hard*

Um, anyway, where was I??   Oh yes... a couple more items in progress...

Plant Pockets!!!!  Don't ask me why!  They just came to me and it's nice to make something with a bit of a 3rd dimension (barely!)  So, bit of wallpaper texture and they will have a touch of tubelining detail cos I just can't let it alone!!!!
They are firing in the kiln as I type so quite excited about that!  Below are a few other new things that are in there too. Squeeeee! 
(Sorry - that was unprofessional and probably not attractive...)

Lastly... and I'll say more about this at a more civilised hour  (ie. not the wee small hours like it is noo) 

...coming soon - an evening at Boo Vake, my fabulous Perth stockist.  On the 20th May.  Diary.  Write it in. Thank you.

Post-meeting

Hmmmm re The Flying Slippers (last post).
The whole idea sounded better in my head than coming out of my mouth.
Gulp.

Interlude...

Aaaaah.... here is a quick interlude for you... Perthshire Sunset Under Ash...

Pretty huh?  (sorry - that's two thirds of it... click for the sun part..)
Right, back to the daily grind....
I have now to bully some thoughts into clarity regarding my FLYING SLIPPER installation at Heartwood during this autumn's Perthshire Open Studios. Tomorrow I must usher forth a proposal about said naughty, wild, flying footwear in front of other artists and not make it sound either naff or twee. 
Being Naff and Twee in front of other artists gets your head kicked in and causes shame and embarrassment and a lot of toe-staring.
Hence... my slippers will be quite dark.  (and I don't mean, y'know, burgandy or something)

I'll report back after tomorrow.

Meanwhile the fireplace tiles are coming on but are still at the dull, plain, square, nothing-to-see-here stage.  There's alot of donkey work in this game- it's not all heady glamour and giddy kiln openings.

TTFN