White Slab Bottle

This bottle I made a long time ago when we were making glazed wares in the oil kiln. It was a complicated exercise to make the curved sides without them looking hollow. My son found this bottle on "Trade Me" and has loaned it to me for awhile.

Artichoke Flower

This is a flower from a wild artichoke. There is a clump of them in my lawn which is flowering well now. Most of the year I can just mow over the area and keep it tidy. Come spring I just leave this area to grow and am rewarded by these lovely bright flowers in late summer. I have not tried to cook the tubers but they would probably be alright to eat.

Tall Bottle

This is another of Estelle's pots from our first firing. It must have been right in the front by the fire grate where the embers have built up against it giving the colour and texture towards the base.

Blue Flowers

These blue flowers are on what I think is called "Tweedia". It has lovely silken seeds that blow about like thistle seeds and so are self seeding and come up in the most unexpected places.

St. Ives Pottery

This pot is from St. Ives pottery and was probably made by Wm. Marshall. There is funding available for the restoration of the Leach Pottery which is competitive. I would like you all to visit http://www.artfundprize.org.uk/2010/vote/ and vote for "The Leach Pottery" who need all the support they can get.

Sunset

This sunset a couple of nights ago was rather spectacular. I am not a great fan of sunset pictures but sometimes they are impressive and deserve to be recorded.

Small Side Dishes

These small dishes are 180mm square and were fired stacked together. The one on the right is the top one without any wadding marks the other four all have the three wadding marks like the one on the left. They are very useful for serving small individual portions of food. Yes! There are only five in the traditional Japanese way - not the half dozen that Western people would expect.

Rhus aka Smoke Tree

This picture is of the seed bearing bracts on my "Smoke Tree". When I take people to look at my kilns they have to walk past this tree and nearly always ask what it is. It is one of the Rhus family which also contains the lacquer tree the sap of which used in Japan and China to coat objects of tableware and furniture.

Lacebark

This New Zealand Lacebark (Hoheria Populnea)is flowering profusely this year. My tree has become very large as it has put its roots into a drain and every second or third year I need to dig out the drain and remove the roots. Next year I am going to get a commercial root cutter in which I hope will delay or stop the roots invading the drain.

Square Platter

This square platter is just under 300mm. square and made from Ivanhoe clay that we imported from the U.K. This clay took the most interesting flame markings as can be seen on this piece. To get the flame patterns it seems necessary to fire very consistently so that the flame passes over the surface in a constant pattern for a long period of time.

Seeds on Maple

My Maple tree isn't very big so that I can get close enough to take photographs of its seeds. Eventually I hope it will become a large tree like those seen in Kyoto - especially those along Philosophy Walk in Higashiyama.

Estelle's Pepper and Salt

These date back to the 1970's when we were doing glazed domestic wares. Our son found them in a second-hand shop recently. They were in perfect condition and only needed new corks to make them useful again.

Another Autumn Fungus

This fungus I found the other day growing on by an old gum stump. The form and colour are both quite amazing. I would wish for more flowers in my garden but I do enjoy finding these natural but unusual plants.

Bamboo Vase

This Bamboo Vase by Estelle is one where the curtain of green glaze shows well. At the end of the firing we would oxidise for about half an hour which would cause the last coats of ash to melt and run giving this curtain of glaze on the surface of the pot.