`Great day at college ,BAD day at work

There is always an anxiety when your a professional running a buisness . You demand big fees for your work , which is great but you have to give a service which justifies the fees.I was having a lovely day today till at my last patient said they were unhappy with the result of their very exspencive orthodontic treatment m. I like to please people,it's my nature. It's important to me to be good at anything I do and to be well thought of, so I find this upsetting. I'm also acutly aware that people who hand over their money have put trust in me, and maybe an oversight in my managment means a longer, more difficult treatment for someone.It will be sorted out, but not tonight!! Any way called in to L.S.A.D. after work tonight @ 7.30 Elaine was STILL working on the Raku klin!Between herself and Kieran they must have moved 200 Red hot 1000degree c. pieces fromthe klin to the sawdust bins and on to be quenched in cold water, without breaking anything!!! including my big , heavy complex , kids running thing. I was feeling really grim when I called in after work, but the company, the nice evening and seeing my stuff comeout all intact and looking so good cheered me up compleatly I did this big plate early , this morning. It's Adem & Eve being thrown out of the garden of edam. The monkey's are laughing at them for all their daft human sensibilities and the wolves are waiting to tear them apart So thats a lot of what I did today, and thanks again to Elaine and Kirean they are great teachers and I'm really loving ceramics

Raku firing

Di8 a raku firing today , pleased with the result, wasn't sure what to expect so result was a pleasant suprise. the little figures I made were painted prior to underglazing but I changed my mind , so its raku fired underglaze and very colourfull !!

Small ceramic monument

Iv'e done a design for a small ,fall of man ceramic piece. It will have Adam & Eve, cherubs ,an angel and a devil.

Pre Raphaelite plate

I got up early and did the big plate. I made it a bit pre-raphaelite looking. It struck that in the picture I used , the Magdalene girls looked very happy. maybe they were beaten if they didn't smile for the camera but I think not , the look realy cheerfull. Maybe it was a holiday, hence the photo or having a photogerpher in gave a holiday atmosphere. The the girls swanning around the convent in the sun looked like a pre-raphaelite painting and just as the pre-raphaelites hankered after a more innocent time that probably never existed the Magdalene laundries were part of the hypocrisy that promulgated the myth of a sexually innocent, holy catholic Ireland. I did a sketch. I then traced two stencils, one for the dark oxide for deep shadow and a pink slip for the faces. i put down the oxide , then the slip. Then I scratched the drawing over. I also put a pale wash on top for the white aprons.

Lot of nice things from the Kiln

Opened Kiln today The clay I found diving at the botto of the river turned a lovely red colour on fireing I'm pleased with the pieces that came out of the kiln I mixed the river clay with stoneware,earthedware and grog . The clay rulers show the shrinkage

Design for big plate

I made a BIG plate today and I will probably scratch this drawing, i drew tonight, into it tomorrow. It looks a bit Victorian so maybe some of the 19th c. art I just learnt stuck!!

exams-yuk....

did an exam today . cant rember when i last did one . I did an Masters of Scioence degree 20 something years ago and a Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons in England and a diploma in Orthodontics at the same time. All that involved a lot of oral exames and dissertations, I remeber doing them, presumably there was written exams in there somewhere but I dont remember them. I also did written exams for my dental degree. Agian I other than one professor saying he couldnt read my writing , so he gave me 50% I dont remember them . The one exam i do remember was my leaving cert. 35 years later I still remember it vividly. I still have recurring dreams about it and the weirdest thing when the paper was put down in front of me today and i was instructed to write my name on the front the writing that came out was my hand writing of my 18 year old self, I recognised it straight away all cramped and awkward , i was schooled in england in the 1960's and never learned joined up writing.It was all so trumatic I went straight down to the Gate for a pint after , cant remember when I last had a drink mid afternoon during a working week. Any way while waiting for the exam, started making a souvenir for my diving buddy ,sinead, who helped find the river clay. its made of the clay we found, hope it fires ok thisd came out of the klin,its ok

Whos that handsome potter ?/ Clay from beneath the river

It's me! Saturday Sinead and I found a HUGE supply of nice sticky clay while scuba diving in the river , it's where the current dividing in front of an island has washed the silt away, exposeing the clay . today I made pinch pots of the raw clay and of the clay mixed ithh 1. stoneware 2. terracotta 3. grog . I also made 15cm sticks of the mixes to test shrinkage. I will fire them at different tempatures to find out the vitrafacation point. I also finished painting some bits I also made 2 plaques of Magdelene girls finally I did more of my Hump mould for a big plate