Getting cosy!

It’s been a few months since my last post, but there has been progress down on the farm. My wheel is finally set up and running, and I have a small corner of the barn to work in!

Et voila!

It doesn’t look like much, but it’s my own little corner, and Dad’s making a bookshelf to go above the wheel, so I’ll be able to re-organise my books and tools and have more space for drying pots. Check out my rigged up shelf behind the splash pan sitting on empty hot chocolate containers. Oh yeah, that’s some quality makeshift improvisation there, worthy of my old studio space at university. At some point I’d like to have a shelf attached to the wheel, but it’ll do for now. It only needs to hold a few tools and the wooden bats while I’m working, so doesn’t need to be particularly load bearing. The metal shelving unit in the foreground is on castors, so it can easily be moved around and used as extra workspace.

I’ve also got a large wooden chopping board that sits nicely over the splash pan of my wheel, and acts as an additional workbench. It’s not ideal, but I’m trying to get as much use out of what little space I have.

All in all it’s very cosy. As it’s the boiler room for the farm it’s quite warm, so I don’t need to wear a jumper which is only a hindrance when you’re trying to throw pots. There’s no wi-fi in there, it’s in a mobile black spot, and even my digital radio doesn’t receive signals. I can just about get a decent signal for Classic FM, but the radio has to sit at a particular angle with the aerial fully outstretched. There’s even a little wind up alarm clock that ticks happily away in the background for when I forget to take my phone in. I can lose hours in there, it’s great!

Progress has been slightly delayed this last couple of weeks with the Easter holidays, events to prepare for and attend, and a fairly horrendous flu bug that’s been doing the rounds. However I managed to squeeze in putting some handles onto a couple of tankards this week, spent some time making some rustic looking buttons, and I got out to Glyn’s pottery for a few hours of glazing, so it’s slowly getting back to normal.

In hindsight the handles may be a little larger than needed, but one of my pet peeves in pottery is handles that are too small for comfort, so someone will like them I’m sure.