Wheelie good fun!

As some of you know I bought a pottery wheel the end of last year and I now have to somehow teach myself to learn how to throw pots. I've found some really good videos on you tube to get me started and the wonderful Mr Ty Siriol bought me the Simon Leach book and dvds for Christmas. 

Even though it has been a tad cold for working in the garage over the winter months I have managed a few attempts with the aid of a fan heater. I really need to get that garage door bricked up! 

Anyway, I have a set of 3 tapas bowls that I made for Mr Ty Siriol as he does love his Mediterranean food. Here is what they looked like after the first firing and once the glazes had been painted on. This is before the final firing. 

A set of tapas bowls ready to be glaze fired.

 The brown glaze is meant to turn out green after the firing. 

Here are the final bowls. 

Tapas bowls after the glaze firing

Tapas bowls for Mr Ty Siriol

I am really pleased with how they turned out. I think the dark blue one is my favourite as I really love that you can see the circular marks where it was thrown on the wheel. 

As this was the first thing from my wheel that was worth firing I had to sign and date the bottom of the very first one. This little guy will now be my bench mark to see if I improve! In the meantime they are being well used. :-)

The underside of my first tapas bowl with my signature and the date. 

I'm looking forward to the weather warming up enough that I can throw on the wheel with the garage door open so I can see the woods opposite at the same time. 

That's all for now folks. Thanks for joining me. 

Cath xx


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New creations

It's been a little while since I last blogged as I'm been a bit blurgh, so to speak. It's not easy to write and be upbeat when feeling that you're not quite yourself so I've saved it all up for now! 

I've been busy recently with sorting out new stock and getting everything photographed. The light isn't always so good now the days are drawing in but yesterday I got out into the garden with the camera in hand. 

This isn't intended to be a hard sell, if you are interested then all my links are at the bottom of each post, but more I'd like to share my work with you because I draw so much happiness from creating them. Each piece is almost like a child to me and I often end up keeping pieces that I simply can't part with. I know that's not good business sense but hand crafted items are about so much more than simply sales. I craft because I'm passionate about what I do and I have a shop also so that I can share my passion with you. Enough said, lets upload some new photos so you can see what I've been up to lately. 

I start off with a few of my new ring dishes, or anything dishes really. I use mine to keep my rings safe when I get the clay out. I also have one in the kitchen as a spoon rest. 

Star trinket dish.

 This star ring dish is the first one I've done as a star and I think it worked really well. The points of the star curve upwards nicely. I love to paint these dishes, it makes me feel like an artist. I'd also like to point out the lovely ribbon that the gift box has, it was made for me by a friend who owns Cookie & Mo on Facebook. She was so amazingly helpful that I highly recommend her. You can find her at: www.facebook.com/cookieandmo.uk

Heart shaped ring dish with peacock blue detail.

 I had a bit of a play about with a new glaze with the dish above. The glaze is a dark green that looks like peacock blue to me. It can look either green or blue depending on the light, just like a peacock feather. I used it to bring out the embossed detailing and was thrilled with the outcome.

Monet's Garden ring dish

Now this dish features a glaze called Monet's Garden. I really wish I could capture the colours in a photo but sadly I couldn't get a good enough one. If this is held up to the sunlight it shimmers and so many colours shine through that it's breath taking. I'll definitely be using this glaze again. It reminds me of a lily pond and there was one in Monet's Garden so I guess that's where the name comes from.

Ceramic leaf bowl, Sycamore.

The technique for this bowl is really simple. I was foraging in the woods with my daughter for her school project and was looking at fresh new leaves everywhere. It reminded of being taught to craft a bowl from a cabbage leaf so I picked a few sycamore leaves to do it again. The great thing about sycamore is that the veins on the back are really deep and they leave a fantastic impression in the clay. I also prefer these leaves to cabbage leaves! So in short the leaves were pushed into clay and the shape was hand cut. The clay was then gently moulded into a bowl shape and left to dry. The glazes used were quite strong colours to bring out the veins and then I did something bold, I ran them under the tap! I'd never tried it before so I have no idea if I would ruin it in the kiln afterwards. So most the colour was washed away but it left the gorgeous veins behind. I let them dry for a couple of days before adding the clear glaze and firing them as I didn't want it to explode in the kiln. Altogether I did three of these and one was snapped up straight away. I'll have to do some more of these next spring. It would probably work quite well with salt dough as well if you fancied having a go. The recipes for salt dough are easily found on the web. A great one for the kids too.

'Time to drink Champagne and dance on the table'

Finally, I've been doing lots of plaque work and these Champagne hearts have been very popular. I'm now turning my attention to Christmas tree hangings. By the time Christmas gets here I'm usually sick of it!! However, these things can't be made over night so I have to prepared. 

So thank you for sharing with me my excitement for my work. It means a lot to me that you follow me and share in my adventure. So I'll say to you now, it's 'Time to drink Champagne and dance on the tables!' Have fun. 

Cath xx 
www.facebook.com/TySiriolCeramicsandCrafts
www.etsy.com/uk/shop/TySiriolCeramics

Craft fair: sneak peeks!

I'm going to be in Abergavenny Art and Craft fair again this Thursday. I'm looking forward to this one more because I know what to expect this time. We have booked a double table as we found that we were very cramped last time. We have 3 main sections to our stall, ceramics, paintings and crocheted goods. I'm also thinking of adding a small section for Christmas themed gifts. I wonder if it's too early but then I'm surprised at how many Christmas things I've already sold online.

I thought I'd give you an idea of what we will have on our stall. So here are a few examples of the ceramics that will be there. (Unless of cause they are bought online first! Website links are at the bottom of the post.)

My signature piece, the leaf bowls. These are suitably autumn themed.

A ceramic garden plaque for the green fingered member of your family.

'Time to drink Champagne and dance on the table' 

Ty Siriol's handmade and hand painted ceramic ring dish.

My mother's work is showcased in the Art section of our stall. She's a talented lady so I urge you to check her out. I'm working on trying to convince her to make prints of some of her pieces but she's a stubborn lady! Here, check out some of her work.

Wild flowers and butterfly silhouette.

Beautiful snowscape in oils.

Love birds silhouette. My favourite of the silhouette range.

The other section of our shop is the crochet section. We are going to be focusing more on this section at the next fair as autumn is most definitely in the air now. I'll be wearing my gauntlets to keep my fingers warm enough to do some crochet if it's quiet early on.

A ripple wrap shawl in peacock colours of blues and greens.

Crocodile stitch gauntlets. I'll be wearing mine to keep warm on the stall!

Triangular shawl in grey and white sequinned yarn. Beautifully soft.

Infinity cowl. I have several different colours available. See the Etsy link below.

Ripple scarf in midnight blues.

For those of you who saw me at the last craft fair, the scarf in midnight blue (above) is the one that I was making behind the stall. :-) It would make a fab Christmas gift... if I can bare to part with it!

Talking of Christmas... yes, I know, it is early but as I said above I've been getting Christmas orders for some time now. So here are a few Christmas things that will be on the stall for the next few months.

Box set of Christmas tree hangings. 'Peace', 'Love' and 'Joy'.

Christmas stockings with hook for hanging.

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, with hook for hanging.

Santa nibbles dish.

So that was a sample of what we have to offer on our stall at the Abergavenny Art and Craft fair this Thursday (2nd Thursday of each month). If you are local and can pop by then please come and say hi. It's always lovely to meet you all in person. 

All this talk of ceramics has reminded me that I have to go and see Kenny (my kiln) and see what delights (or disasters) he holds for me today. It's like Christmas all year round with Kenny! :-) 

Thank you for reading my blog.
Cath xx

www.facebook.com/TySiriolCeramicsandCrafts
www.etsy.com/uk/shop/TySiriolCeramics 

The first craft fair for Ty Siriol at Abergavenny Art & Crafts Fair.

I've wanted to do a craft fair for years but have been putting it off for ages for the fear of not being able to guarantee being well for the day. Unfortunately, I'm not even able to guarantee being well on my wedding day next day and at the moment I'd say it's 50/50. However, I'm not going to get any better so I bit the bullet and went for it any way. 

I choose to start off slowly so I opted for a local craft fair in Abergavenny. It's on a Thursday once a month and has a very relaxed feel to it. I've been to a few of them as a customer and chatted to some of the stall holders who were kind enough to encourage to go for it. So with a great big push from Mr Ty Siriol I signed up.

Thankfully I was aware of how much work is involved behind the scenes after the many car boot sales I've done in the past. Of course, this is not a car boot so presentation was more important. My brother was kind enough to make some props for me to use on the stall. He made me some shelves and a pendant tree. It is useful having a carpenter in the family and all he charged was a few lagers, even better!! So look out for his handy work in the pics. 

I had a practise run in my dining room and set up my stall. I'm glad I did as well as I found a few problems with the set up that were fixed before the day. I have to say a huge thank you to everyone on facebook who gave me some great advice. In particular I have to thank a friend of mine, Cookie, from Cookie & Mo who was invaluable to me. Please help me show her my appreciation by popping by her facebook page and saying hi on her wall. Tell her that I sent you because I'm bossy! 
www.facebook.com/cookieandmo.uk

It's about time I showed you some pics. Here is my practise run. 

The pendant tree that my brother made for me. Isn't he wonderful!

My mock fair in the dining room. Practise makes perfect, or so I've been told!

Finally the day came. I had lots of help so a big thank you to everyone who helped out, whether it was lugging boxes, smiling at customers, or taking turns to keep L'il Miss Ty Siriol happy as it's school holidays and I didn't have a sitter. 

The stall looked like this. 

Me! Standing proudly behind my creations.

These are a selection on my mum's paintings.

Mr Ty Siriol having a well earned sit down. He lugged all the boxes for me.

 Lots of friends and family turned to to show support which was great. I felt really proud seeing all my work on display and being able to show friends and family what I do. L'il Miss Ty Siriol was very good and wanted to help out. She went shopping with Nanny for a bit and came back with lots of books. In the end it was all too much for her and I found her trying to sleep under the table. Take a look. 

L'il Miss Ty Siriol plum tuckered out.

All in all it was a good day. We had a few sales even though it was a slow day due to the summer holidays. I got through it physically and thankfully it finished at 3pm. In fact I have now signed up for the remaining Art & Craft fairs until the end of the year. Happy all around. 

Here's the link to the Abergavenny Craft fairs.  
http://www.abergavennymarket.co.uk/

Cath x
www.facebook.com/TySiriolCeramicsandCrafts
www.etsy.com/uk/shop/TySiriolCeramics 

Crafting is my therapy

This post seems apt today as I'm recovering from a car accident a week ago. Don't worry, we'll all be fine and the crumple zones in the car did their job to perfection. The incident does have me thinking again about why I got back into crafting. 

I doubt many of you know that I used to have a full on career as a medical researcher. Yes, I have the title of Dr. However, things started to go wrong when I was pregnant with L'il Miss Ty Siriol and I became chronically ill with various autoimmune conditions. (I don't like the word disease as it sounds like I'm contagious.)

I went back to work after L'il Miss was born but after about 2 years of getting progressively worse I was medically retired by Atos. And believe me, if Atos says you can't work you must be bad. This came as a huge blow and I tried for 2 years to get back into work. I even volunteered in two places but couldn't cope. I had to admit defeat. It wasn't easy as I've always been very hard on myself and aim for perfection. I was very low.

So I gradually turned to my crafts again. I got the crochet hooks out again and now I have quite the collection of them, including Tunisian style.  I joined a pottery class and discovered a love for clay. Suddenly I found a new outlet. I had something else to focus my efforts on and happiness slowly returned. I was looking for progressively harder crochet patterns and techniques, including Tunisian and hairpin lace and I loved the challenge. Here's a pic of one of my hairpin lace shawls. 

White wedding shawl in hairpin lace and traditional crochet.

The nice thing is that I was able to do something productive on what I call my 'wipe out' days. These are days when my body has given up on me and says, 'NO! You are not doing anything today, you need to rest.' I spend these days on the sofa.

Even though my body might have failed me, my brain is still very much alive and needs regular exercise. Working through harder patterns was the exercise it needed. Craft really did become a therapy as it stopped me from going into a depression and kept me occupied.

Pottery and ceramics is a little different and I have to do this on my good (better) days. I've dropped liquid clay (slip) on the carpet twice now when I wasn't strong enough to carry it!! Good thing it's the carpet in the garage and not the house. No one except me goes out there. ;-) Here's some of my earlier work.

Slip cast ceramic kingfisher, robin and lily pitcher.

Hand built ceramic wall plaque, 'Grandma's garden'.

Hand built 'Wonky Cottage' but unfortunately I dropped it on the floor and destroyed it. :-(

Slip cast candle holders and matching decanter.

After a while I was finding that I had run out of space for all these creations. My friends and family had all been made a gift of some sort as well. I was getting lots of compliments about my work and I could see a huge improvement over the years. Many people said I should be doing craft fairs but unfortunately I'm not well enough to do them without a lot of support. So I turned to Etsy and starting to advertise my work. (I am HMRC registered by the way. :-) ) 

I found yet another therapeutic outlet through having a shop. I was suddenly in contact with so many wonderful people who shared my interests. Why hadn't I done this before? I really enjoy networking and exchanging ideas with like minded people. I'm also a nerd who loves the bookkeeping side!  I've also met a lot of people who are disabled and like myself have turned to crafts. Instead of feeling left out, as I did when I was first retired, I'm now part of something amazing. You guys keep me going through the bad days and I'm pleased to share my good days with you. You might not think that you've done anything special but I can tell you now that you have, you have made my life better and I thank you all for that. 

I'll leave you with a photo of me getting down and dirty with clay!! No Ghost comments please! Oh, go on then. :-)

Me!

Please follow me on facebook to keep up to date with new ideas, stock and offers. I can also be found on Etsy. (Links below.)  
Thank you for reading.  
Cathy x
www.facebook.com/TySiriolCeramicsandCrafts  
www.etsy.com/uk/shop/TySiriolCeramics

How to make one of my ceramic leaf bowls.

I often wonder, how do others regard 'handmade'?  

What I mean by this is do you think of 'handmade' as something knocked together by your granny, who lives by the make-do-and-mend mantra (which I agree with to a point), or do you see it as something handmade with love by an artisan and which is truly unique? I think both points of view exist, especially in different parts of the country, and the world.

I usually fall on the side of the artisan as I know first hand how much skill and passion goes into making things from scratch. I also appreciate the hand patched apron that granny might wear as I was raised to not be wasteful. 

For those who don't see the skill and passion involved in artisan hand-crafted items I'm going to take you on a journey through how I make one of my ceramic leaf bowls. 

How to make a ceramic leaf bowl. 

Greenware stage of making a leaf bowl.

Each piece of the bowl shown above has first been handmade (there's that word again!) from earthenware clay. The clay was rolled out and each leaf individually made. In this case I have a useful cutter and vein stamp that save me a lot of time but I don't always have them. Each leaf is hand cleaned to prevent any rough edges forming. I start from the base, which is in this example is a circle that I have precut, and assemble the leaves in an overlapping formation. This is important as I need to join the individual leaves to each other with liquid clay (slip). Each leaf is 'scored and slipped' to join them together. I use a bowl to form the shape of the leaf bowl as at this stage the clay is still wet and doesn't hold its shape.

The layers of leaves are built up to the required shape and size. For this bowl I added two little butterflies, which I think bring the piece to life. Here's a close up. 

Close up of the butterfly detail.

Now the bowl needs to be left at least a week in a cool place so that the clay can dry out. This is what we can the 'greenware' stage before firing. 

Once the bowl has dried thoroughly it is ready to be fired in a kiln up to temperatures of approximately 1050 degrees C. My garage gets rather warm! 

Did you know that I named my kiln? Well, I'm daft enough to do that sort of thing. I named him 'Kenny' so that I can say, 'Oh my god, I've kilned Kenny!' That's for the South Park fans out there. I do however, omit the last line as I could do without L'il Miss Ty Siriol learning that!

Anyway, this is a photo of the bowl after it has been 'bisque fired'. The clay at this stage is called 'bisque'. 

The leaf bowl after bisque firing.

The next stage is the painting. With this example I used a blend of pinks with a few glazes.

The first coat of pink glazes.

A second coat of the darker pink was blended in to intensify the colour at the leaf tips.

Once I was happy with the colours I had painted, bearing in mind that the colours will intensify in the kiln, the next stage was to paint on a 2-3 coats of clear glaze. The make I like paints on a pale green colour and looks like this.

The leaf bowl with 2-3 coats of clear glaze. It is now ready to be fired again.

I like to leave the glaze coat overnight before being fired again to make sure that it is fully dry and no bubbles occur. The bowl went back into the kiln for a glaze firing of temperatures up to about 1020 degrees C. I don't like to look too closely at the electric bill! :-)

I love the next bit best. After leaving the kiln to cool overnight it is time to crack it open and see what delights are in there. I never know firstly, if my items will survive the firing, as some things can explode if they are not dry enough, and second, what the colours are going to look like. It's like Christmas Day every time I open the kiln and thankfully I've usually been a good girl and things survive. :-)

The leaf bowl in the kiln after glaze firing. It survived!!

I am extremely pleased with how this bowl came out. I was also very happy as a good friend of mine commissioned it and I don't usually do these on commission due to the failure rate in the kiln. 

Here is the final photo before the bowl was given to its new owner. By the way, its owned by Tracy from Glasspirations. She is also a lover of artisan crafted items and an artisan in her own right. Check out her website here. www.glasspirations.co.uk/

The end result of many weeks work and ready for its new owner.

I hope you enjoyed reading this blog and now have an insight into what it means when you buy something 'handmade'. I might not like everything I see, as we all have different tastes, but I can see the work and passion that has gone into making these bespoke pieces. I have a huge admiration for artisans and many have become good friends over the years. 

Please follow me on facebook to keep up to date with new ideas, stock and offers. I can also be found on Etsy. (Links below.)
Thank you for reading.
Cathy x

www.facebook.com/TySiriolCeramicsandCrafts
www.etsy.com/uk/shop/TySiriolCeramics