Gilbert and Stone

Clay play

I’ve been busy trying to get everything together to open an etsy shop- there’s so much to do: write product descriptions and store policies, decide on best tags and SEO, figure out postage costs and order packaging... the list goes on. It’s taking much longer than I expected, and I’ve been neglecting the most important things- the products!

This afternoon I made the most of the fab weather and set to work on a couple of ideas I’d had for some ceramic coasters. I design all my own work and make my own plaster moulds- the process starts by building/sculpting my idea in clay. Once I’m happy with it I use the original to make a plaster mouldwhich is then used to cast exact replicas in slip (liquid clay).
It’s quite a simple process- the originals are stuck face up onto a piece of glass (I’ve been using our glass garden table!) and surrounded  by cottle boards- the gaps under and between the boards are sealed with clay to prevent leakage of the plaster. Plaster is mixed and poured over the originals and in 30 minutes or so the boards can be removed and the plaster released from the table.

Ta da! I’m now left with a perfect reverse impression of my original design. Next I'll clean the edges up with a shaver tool and some sandpaper and leave them to dry. These moulds should be dry and ready to use in a week or so- I can’t wait to play around with some colours and glaze and get these babies in my shop!

The sap is rising...

The mild winter meant we’ve been seeing signs of spring here since the end of autumn, including daffodils in November and Camelias in January! Tomorrow is the equinox, so  it’s official- SPRING IS DEFINATELY HERE! It was a gorgeous day today and I ventured out with the camera to snap a few developments:

 

You can almost see the leaves on the currant bushes unfurl infront of you- each day they get greener and greener.  The rhubarb is looking more promising this year, though it definitely wouldn’t win any prizes. The leaves are supposed to be poisonous, so I’m stumped as to what’s nibbling them- any ideas?

The vibrant colour of all the new growth is quite alarming after months of brown and grey (not that I’m complaining!)

The thing I’m most proud of, and slightly smug about, is the purple sprouting broccoli. Previous attempts have been thwarted by impatience (year one I chucked them on the compost heap when they didn’t produce the goods by the autumn- a classic rookie mistake!) and caterpillar attack. I think we’ll have our first harvest later this week.

I stuck the smaller image of potatoes chitting in the greenhouse in there to ‘inspire’ me to weed their patch and get them in the ground (I’m doing Anya and Duke of York this year). I heard it’s traditional to plant potatoes on Good Friday, so we’ve got a few weeks yet!

Can you tell what it is yet?

Most of my ideas for new bits and pieces come to me in the wee small hours when I can’t get back to sleep- I've been turning this one over between the hours of 3am and 4am for the past couple of days. This afternoon I grabbed clay and tools, sat in front of Google maps and set to work ‘experimenting’. I’m pretty chuffed with how it’s going so far- but can you tell what it is?!