Blackham Pottery

The Pantiles, Saturday Morning. All set up. Now for some breakfast!

Blackham Pottery will be at this two day Art Festival event on the Pantiles, Tunbridge Wells on Saturday and Sunday 10am until 5pm. This is the first of its kind and I am privileged to be part of it. It is a celebration of all kinds of arts...poetry, music, creative arts, photography, fabric and yarn, ceramics, and performance. It is completely free to attend. Do come and support.

So very excited to be part of this fabulous event next weekend on the Pantiles. It's completely free and full of activities for all the family - demonstrations, performances, workshops and stalls. Blackham Pottery will be there with other arty, crafty types on both days. Find me on the Lower Walk selling my ceramics.
More information at rtwas.org/artofthepantiles

Tomorrow from 10am until 2pm I will be combining my ceramics with my husband's honey at the High Weald Food Festival at the Crowborough Community Centre (TN6 1FE). Come along - there will be so many other food stalls...chocolate, alcohol (may as well stop there!🤪)curry, sauces, sausages, bakes and pastries, meat products, jams and chutneys, to name a few plus other food related stalls. See you there.

A tale about tails. More mice jugs on the go. All shapes and size. Each tiny face is different.

I will be at the High Weald Food Festival with my bee themed ceramics and Steve & Stein's honey from the bees they farm across Kent and East Sussex. Saturday 7th September from 10am until 2pm. Loads of other food producers will be there too. Come and say hello.

I'm at my happiest playing with clay. I was lucky enough to be photographed potting by a professional photographer yesterday for an exciting adventure. I know I can be loud and extrovert but I am actually quite shy (I really am) so it took a lot to allow a lens into my private pottery world. Thank you, Julie # # #

The most exciting (or nerve-racking) thing is what you will find when you open your kiln. Glaze colours change under the high temperatures which can exceed 1200 degrees celsius. Blood red will become deep blue, and browns may change to shades of green. Some colours will run and spread over a flux glaze while others will hold their form. Sometimes, the most precious commission piece, made under a tight time constraints, will explode into fragments - a special gift ruined. You just never know. Ceramics are a glorious, magical surprise or a test to one's patience.

I never tire of the vast posibilities clay can bring to the creative mind. Some are a familiar, a well trodden path, and others are new and experimental, or a combination of new and old designs. The joy for me is always the making. My trusty wheel and fabulous kiln of wonder!
I am preparing for the Pantiles in September as well as my usual markets and am hoping to combine my ceramics with some beautiful silver plated vintage items for the perfect gift.

We're on the road again...Blackham Pottery will be at the Withyham Fete on Saturday at 12.30pm onwards. This is a traditional village fete with Pimms, bric-a-brac, plant stall, Pimms, tea and cake, Pimms, nearly new clothes (I got a cashmere jumper last year!), Pimms, maypole dancing, book stall, Pimms, locally made crafts, Pimms, coconut shy, birds of Pimms/prey; dog show, Pimms and me...(on the Pimms). Please bring cash if you want to buy anything at the fete, though. That's how traditional it is!!!

Such a busy time...the comfort of designs I'm used to making (mice and heart jugs), and some time letting the imagination flow - love to play with clay.

Blackham Pottery will be back at the Crowborough Market at the Community Centre on Saturday 6th from 10am until 2pm. Lots of new things from the kiln. And if hand thrown ceramics aren't your thing, there are plenty of other hand made items for sale. Bring a friend and enjoy fresh brewed coffee and tea with home baked cakes and pastries. Plus there will be a choir and performing arts on the stage...

Potfest 24...lots of pots. It was wonderful and the weather perfect.

"Shape clay into a vessel - it's the space within that makes it useful" Laozi.
A warm day in the pottery,
Connecting amidst the birdsong
The sound of diggers moving earth
And the simple joy or making.

Love a matching pair...all hand made at Blackham Pottery

Come along to the Crowborough Community Centre today (until 2pm)! Crafty items and sausage rolls to die for!

I am at a lovely Market in Hartfield with the most gorgeous crafts! Do come along. Here until 4pm.

Owl dishes back in stock! Both slightly different. Scalloped edge is larger. I'm in Hartfield at the village hall sale until 4pm. Or I can reserve and post.

Hurrah! Thank you to Nigel and Roger from the Clay Cellar, my kiln is firing on all cylinders again! But what a job...they took it apart three times!

My kiln is on the blink! Waiting for a service. Bear with...

Bee baths...stick em amongst your flowers to give the bees a drop of water. Shallow to prevent drowning.

The collective noun for owls is a parliament. Let's hope this lot will stop cutting taxes and start investing in the infrastructure of this country! (Oops, a teeny bit political!)