Jenni Hale Open Weekend

Jenni Hale is having an open weekend 1st and 2nd December Everyone is welcome
for details go to www.jenniehale.co.uk

Bauble Blowing demonstration

The Glassblowing Studio is open to the public this Friday 30th November 2007 for a Christmas Bauble Blowing demonstration.
So if you've ever wondered how it's done, then please come and join us on Friday 30 November between 6 and 9pm and warm yourselves up by the furnace with a glass of mulled wine and a hot, home made mince pie.
We shall also be having a "Bag of Baubles" raffle in aid of Cancer Research UK.
It's wonderful to be able to show people how Malcolm makes beautiful christmas baubles out of molten glass and a bit of puff, he makes it look so easy!. (If you fancy having a go at glassblowing why not book a glassblowing lesson, details on our website www.malcolmsutcliffe.co.uk or give us a ring 01326 377020)

Looking forward to seeing you on Friday evening!

Malcolm Sutcliffe Glass Gallery & Studio
2 West Street,
Penryn,
Cornwall
TR10 8EW, UK

Christmas Evening

CC&GG member Andy Nicholls and his wife Alison, have kindly invited members to a Christmas evening get together on Sunday December the 16th from 4 pm. Partners are invited and everyone is asked to bring some food and drink, American supper style. There will be a ceramic video or two and some games. Suggestions welcome.
Andy and Alison live in a very new and interesting property at Trevone near Padstow. Their house is the first to be built in the UK by Baufritz who are the leading eco house builders in Germany. His ceramic studio is slate hung with a chamomile green roof. .
The address is: The Breakers, Dobbin Road, Trevone near Padstow PL28 8QW Tel:01841 520 992
Directions:
Follow signs toward Padstow turning off toward St Merryn on the A389. Take the turning off to Trevone at Windmill (hamlet not a building) and half a mile down on the right, opposite the village hall, there is a sign to the Well Park Pub,
Dobbin Road is straight on along the private road. The house is the new slate and weather boarded house on the right next to Ocean Apartments (parking is restricted there is extra parking by the pub 300 yards away)
If you would like to join us, meet other members and have a great evening please contact Andy at the above address or telephone number or easier still email him at: andrewnicholls517@btinternet.com

Visit to Svend Bayer & Sandy Brown

SATURDAY 24TH NOVEMBER
This year we'll be returning to Svend Bayer’s studio for his annual sale, at which you should be able to acquire wonderful examples of work by this renowned potter at bargain prices. We shall also have the opportunity to see his remarkable wood fired kilns, in which his work is fired to cone 12 over a period of about four days. The pottery is at Duckpool Cottage, Sheepwash, Black Torrington, North Devon and is best approached from Highampton on the Holsworthy to Hatherleigh road, turning left to travel due north, passing straight through Sheepwash village square, continuing for about 1.5 miles to Filleigh Moor, grid reference SX 485086. Please aim to be there at 10.30 am.
Lunch will be at either the Half Moon at Sheepwash (which changes hands in early November) or the Royal George or the Beaver at Appledore. More details on the day.
We travel to Appledore to meet Sandy Brown at 2.30pm at her home, 3 Marine Parade, EX39 1PJ, where we will see her collection of expressive, colourful ceramic artwork. Please be punctual. We will later move on to Sandy’s studio, the Glove Factory.
Please contact Jon Whitten on 01208 880836 or whitten@stkew.eclipse.co.uk if you are intending to come. Please try to share transport where possible.

Feast AND Famine!

The 13th National Pottery and Ceramics Festival.
Hatfield House 3rd – 5th August
This year’s Festival coincided with the hottest weekend of the summer. A Feast of pottery and ceramics was on show but the very hot weather meant a Famine of punters.
Those who stayed away missed the chance to see fine exhibitions of ceramic art and craft with plenty of space for leisurely viewing. Here was something for everyone. The five large exhibition tents housed much that was traditional or familiar but happily there were many challenging forms especially from the numerous overseas contributors and young ceramic graduates. Surface texture (sometimes extreme) was prominent as a decorative alternative to glazing, perhaps denoting an increasingly organic influence, the best exponents showing freely made pieces. Craig Underhill and Robin Welch displayed colourful hand built pieces with sculptural appeal and Svend Bayer’s part finished vessels gave an insight into the potter’s process.

If I had to pick stars of the show from the feast of exciting work I think they would be Eddie Curtis’s exquisite reduced copper red glazes combined on new Japanese inspired forms, Linda de Nil’s monumental textured anagama fired vessels, Becky Harle’s porcelain ribbon swirls and young Akiko Hirai’s tactile Japanese tea bowls.

Sadly there was a famine of Cornish potters and interesting open air demonstrations though some of the presentations were very informative, particularly Andrew Palin’s hand building and volcanic glazes. And if you ran out of money or cheques then there was no cash machine on site for that one last ”must have” purchase! Maybe next year.

On its new bigger site, the Festival’s true value must surely be the chance to exchange ideas and pick the brains of working potters. Famous or unknown, all exhibitors I spoke to were equally happy to talk about their work and techniques. No-one more so than the enthusiastic Wai Shing Cheung from Farnham College who was engagingly vague about the glazes and clay in his exciting tea bowls!

Barry Marshall-Johnson. Westcliff Pottery, Fowey