Ceramics

Welcome to my new Ceramics blog.

Please check me out on Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/minigaardens



Happy to make an unusual gift as a
small sculpture or other form from clay.

Please message me your details here 

or on my Mini Gardens Ceramics page.

 Please follow my 

blog on Raku firing.

Raku, I love your quirky colours, effects, results.
Ask me more about this Japanese art.

Raku Firing Workshop 
May 2016

 It was a cold day to start with 

and we all needed
lots of hot drinks to keep us going.

It was a group of about ten

 and it was a lot of fun.

This is the special outdoor

 gas fired kiln
which all our pre-made bisque 

fired work was placed in.

Work inside red hot raku kiln




 It is heated slowly and the work is fired
 at quite a high temperature.



This takes a long time. The effects are
 really cool and worth waiting for.

This area had to be created
vegetation cut back, 
to allow the area to be safe

One of my pots I have glazed
on the inside

See how it is transformed below.

This has been fired and looks
like nothing right now


but when it has cooled I can put
on gloves and gently remove the
burnt black from the pot
and it will shine and look amazing.

Here you can see how I have brought

out the shine on the pot.

I love the effect you see from a Raku firing. 

The glaze looks crazed and is so cool.

The art of Clay.

What is the story?

Clay has been discovered over 

thousands of years, 

in the ground.

It is an amazing natural material which 

can be used in so many ways.

Pottery back in Roman times was 

quite advanced considering there

was so much less available to mould and 

create with.

But we know how adaptable 

The Romans were.

I love to look at ancient artefacts 

found in museums
all over the place. 

It gives me a lot of inspiration.

St Albans museum has an amazing 

array of potsand finds it is well worth a visit.



The British Museum in London has 

a whole floor dedicated to

ceramics, glass and a lot more.

One of my first small pieces of sculpture
I made during the 

summer 2016.

I really enjoyed making 

this 'Lady in Cloak'.

There is something really enjoyable

 about working with this 

fabulous medium of clay.

Working with a gritty type of clay
creating 'heads' in clay.

Clay is an amazing 

natural material to work with.

It is such a cool medium. 

It is soft, flexible and
comes in so many textures allowing 

us to create
all kinds of pieces of art work.