Friday 20 April 2012

Slow Design


Our slow design philosophy to Butter Wynd Pottery production is not in alignment with our project for Fife Contemporary Art & Craft. As the deadline approaches I am beginning to understand just what is involved in Sean's raw clay digging. Sean has told me I need to read his previous blog entries to catch up, but I'm only now realising the work involved in processing the clay we are collecting from willing soil sample givers. As Sean rearranges the contents of our shrinking shed to accommodate more buckets, shelves of drying clay and devising a system to process the variety of clay we are sourcing, he has finally found a purpose for the broken bed frame and accepted that we are not to have veg in the veg plot this year but clay and wild flowers. I know only one thing - a country potter must have had more room than we do.

It is amazing how much space is required to make six plates it should necessitate half our garden too. Our modest garden has a propensity to move towards a Steptoes and sons environment, our limited space means our collections are curbed and I relish my visits to Steptoesyard in St Cyrus to see how we could become. My new mantra is: space is a state of mind.

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