The day to day running of a country pottery

The average day will start with around 2 – 3 hours of cleaning up the pots made the previous day & applying our unique pottery stamp to the base, this identifies the name & location of the pottery & the year it was founded. We will then move onto cleaning all the pot boards used to minimise the dust created by the dry clay, it is then time to prepare clay for the days throwing the amount prepared & the weight used is determined by the products we are going to make. On average we aim to make between 100 & 150 pots per day, after the clay prepping is finished the weighed balls of clay are stacked next to the wheel & throwing then commences. Various tools are used in the throwing process first & foremost are the hands, we also use many different sized ribs to assist in the lifting of the clay which we make ourselves out of stainless steel to give a very clean finish to the outside of the pots. After the throwing is completed for the day the boards of wet pots are stacked in the drying racks to air dry. The heat produced by the firing of the kiln & an instore wood burning stove assist in the drying process which can last from 3 to 7 days depending on the size of the items made. This will take us into mid afternoon when we will move to the decorating table and start the hand decorating of completed pots. The final stage is to dip all the pots in a clear glaze before they are loaded into the kiln ready to be fired. The firing usually takes 16 hours for the kiln to reach temperature of 1040 – 1060oC at which point it is then left for 24 hours to cool down. If the Kiln gods have been good to us we will have had a successful firing & the goods can then proceed to the shop area after quality control where they are available for purchase.