New Developments

I thought I'd update you on my new works in progress - let me know in the comments what you think!

For those who don't already know, what happens in my Shed is my side hustle. I work full time in a school which means most of my work happens in the school holidays. School nights and weekends just keep me ticking over so I use the school holidays (when my lad is off fishing or cycling or climbing or whatever else he fancies) to develop new work, try new clays and glazes and develop new products.

The first (and most exciting) test is of a new clay body.

Until recently I've been using - very happily - a flecked buff from our local supplier - CTM in Exeter. It's a cheap and cheerful clay which is lovely to throw with and fires to a gorgeous toasty colour. As a bonus you often get a deep toasty line where the glaze and clay meet.

You can see this really nicely on this utensil holder which will feature in my next shop update.

Having said that, time spent on Instagram has diverted my (short) attention span to the existence of grey and black clay. My followers on insta will know that I wasted no time and dived on in! Another local supplier Hot Clay in Bristol stock a range of clay including a black and grey. At around 3x the price of my speckled buff I only ordered a couple of bags of each. The grey is already in testing and you've loved it at the markets - I sold out of grey and bright blue mugs before I could get their pictures taken! So it's a keeper. I also have a range of bowls in this grey - the bright glazes contrast with it beautifully and it seems you all agree! I've just a few of these trinket bowls left until the next shop update in a couple of weeks.

Yesterday I pulled the black clay out of its first firing - to 1000*c and it's survived perfectly. I'm going to glaze them today and fire them over the weekend. I'm going to try bright glazes for maximum contrast against the black, however it's all a bit unpredictable as the raw clay contains pigment which will react with the glazes - hopefully this will produce eye catching finishes but testing it is the only way to know for sure! So watch this space!

Finally, I've been working on two new lines - let me know what you think! These garden stakes will be made to order (pre-order) and available in a variety of colours - these testers will be glazed and fired soon to give you an idea of how they will look when finished but this is them in their raw state!

The other line I'm considering producing more of are these little carved tumblers. They'll be glazed on the inside and the carving will have glaze in to contrast with the raw black clay. I'm quite excited about these as I don't have to add handles!

As always, I'd love to get your feedback - feel free to leave your comments below, and the best place for updates on my work is on either Instagram or Facebook - both links are below.

And if you've got this far, thanks so much for reading!

Meg