Travels and meeting up with family and potters - Part One

You will have noticed the lack of blog posts..  I've been on an overseas trip.  Mostly to spend some time with my son in Ireland and then a bit of a tour of the Isle of Man and Wales and Somerset in the UK.

It was wonderful to spend time with my eldest son who has lived overseas for a while now. He was a great tour guide of Dublin and its surrounds.. Not only that, we went to some potteries and met up with a young potter in Kilkenny county, Claire Molloy,  who gave us a great demo of her horse hair raku technique.

Here is a link to her website: http://www.clairemolloyceramics.com/
and Claire is on Facebook too: Claire Molloy Ceramics

here are some images of her process:

her Raku kiln is loaded up with the bisqued pots

once the correct temperature is reached the red hot pots are removed

placed on the floor

and the horse hair applied to create unique patterns

here is a selection of her finished work on display in her studio. As our next stop was to be the Isle of Man and the weight restrictions were quite low, I kept my purchase to a lovely little star pendant which made it back safely.  Thanks for a lovely visit, Claire.












Claire mentioned another pottery we could visit on our way to Kilkenny, Nicholas Mosse, at the other end of the handmade spectrum, this pottery decorates their wares with slips that are applied with sponges that have been cut into patterns.  The works are beautiful examples of the technique. They also have a museum and cafe on the site.

The website has an interesting video clip: http://nicholasmosse.com/how-its-made

In Kilkenny just across from the castle is a craft and design centre with exhibitions and workshops.  The potter, Ray Power was in the middle of packing his kiln so couldn't chat. Nice pieces with some different glazes and some slip trailed decoration..  His website link is here: http://www.castlearchpottery.ie/

and the weather was kind to us most days though the wind was cold.  This was taken the day we visited the ancient site of Newgrange - a Celtic monument that has been refurbished to make it safe for visitors to enter.

A long range view of the mound which is Newgrange.  There are also standing stones on the site which predate Stonehenge.
Part Two will be visiting the Isle of Man..